


Missing Pieces

by Lumelle



Series: Instructions for Assembly (Some Parts Sold Separately) [3]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Ultimate Spider-Man (Cartoon), Young Avengers
Genre: Family Feels, Family Issues, Kidnapping, Multi, Parent Tony Stark
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-10
Updated: 2014-08-27
Packaged: 2018-01-24 06:55:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 95,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1595717
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lumelle/pseuds/Lumelle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Almost a year after they arrived in another world, the Young Avengers have settled into their new lives. However, when Billy goes MIA during a battle and his mysterious experiment seems to have eaten Kate, it's going to take a lot of time and effort before everyone is back where they belong.</p><p>Of course, things get complicated when Billy doesn't want to come home and Kate appears to be stuck in a ghost story with rather surprising guest stars.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> As before, this 'verse includes the canon of most MCU movies up to Thor 2, with the exception of _Iron Man 3_.
> 
> This was my NaNo Camp project for April 2014. While I won't update it quite as often as the first part of the series, every other week to start with, I do hope to finish posting it by the end of July. By that time I'll hopefully have the next interlude and then the next story lined up.
> 
>  **Please note** that this work will contain a kidnapping-like situation, people going MIA, physical injury, non-graphic violence, discussion/implications of past child neglect/abuse, past loss of a family member, and mourning. The work will also contain a threesome, mentions of infertility/loss of fertility, and strong language. Please read accordingly.

"So." Tony frowned at his reflection, turning half a step to look at himself at an angle. "Do I look more presentable now?"

"Well, there's no engine oil on your face anymore, so it's definitely an improvement." Billy was standing beside him, eyeing him with a critical gaze. "And I suppose the hair's as good as we're ever going to get it."

"As though you're one to speak." Tony huffed, looking at his hair in the mirror. It was perfectly respectable, thank you, mocking offspring who did not deserve any consideration in such a matter. "Besides, they both like it a little messy."

"Well, they certainly like to mess it up." Tommy was leaning against a wall, watching them both with the kind of lazy boredom that meant he was mere moments away from doing something potentially very stupid. Lack of blood ties or no, this one was definitely his kid. "It's kind of indecent, really. Aren't old people supposed to be, like, impotent?"

"Okay, first off, none of us is old. Well, maybe Steve if you want to get technical, but he's physically at the peak of his health, so you can shut up right there. And second, I wouldn't go around criticizing anyone's love life if I was you, Mr. Early Release."

"Hey!" Tommy frowned in mock offense. "Kate's never had any cause to complain about my speed, thank you very much!"

"And that's as far as that conversation's going to go," Billy cut in, adjusting Tony's suit jacket in a way he definitely could have done himself. "At least unless you want me to start waxing lyrical about the benefits of a boyfriend who can change his size and shape more or less freely."

"Okay, hint taken, now shut up before I'm forced to go and drop my head in a vat of bleach." Tommy made a face.

"Why? I thought that was already part of your daily shampoo routine."

"You shut up." Tommy pointed an accusatory finger at Tony. "First off, fuck you, it's all natural and you should know it by now. And besides, you shouldn't talk about anyone's choices in terms of personal appearance, or we'll have to remind you just what you were going to wear on your date."

"What? Those were perfectly good clothes." Certainly Pepper and Steve seemed to like him well enough in his workroom clothes.

"For the lab, sure. But this is supposed to be a fancy date, so you can't show up in dirty jeans and a ripped t-shirt. Which is why Mr. Stereotype here is fussing over your appearance."

"It's not my fault if straight guys are stereotypically fashion blind," Billy protested. "Besides, you agreed we shouldn't let him go out with all that lab dirt over him."

"Yeah. You're the one who practically shoved me into the shower, so don't you go blaming your brother for taking an inordinate amount of interest in my personal appearance." Not that he supposed he could complain.

"Yes, well, that's because Pepper and Steve may have both been individually dropping hints that it would be good if you were presentable during the date."

"Seriously?" Tony blinked. "I think I should feel betrayed."

"Apparently the last time you went on a date, you showed up in a hoodie with burn marks on it. Even though you're the one who picked the restaurant."

"A restaurant which I own, so it's not like we were going to get kicked out for my attire."

"That's not the point." Billy poked him in the shoulder. "The point is, there's appropriate things to wear, and you know that, since you can make yourself presentable for formal affairs. And since you can do it and everyone knows it, if you don't bother, that means you don't consider them important enough to make the effort."

"Bullshit. If they weren't important, I wouldn't make the time to go out to begin with." Which the boys knew just as well as Pepper and Steve did, but he figured he did deserve some snark. "It's not lack of caring that's my actual sin, it's absent-mindedness."

"Sure it is."

"No, really. It's not that I didn't take the time to dress up for them, it's just that I forgot to start in time. I figured it was better for me to get out in the hoodie rather than be late and risk them heading out without me."

"Oh, please. Like they'd leave you behind." And this? This was why he didn't actually believe the kids when they claimed to hate him. Certainly they were less sincere than Tony himself had been whenever he had told his father the same.

"Of course not. They can't get rid of me, not with JARVIS on my side." Tony paused. "Though I sometimes swear he likes Pepper better than me. So, yeah, I appear to be pretty dependent on their goodwill."

"Good thing they seem so attached to you." Tommy patted him on the back. "Better keep it that way, since I'm not going to be around to comfort you if you screw this up."

"Believe me, if I do screw this up, all I'm going to need is some booze." Tony considered it for a moment, then added, "And probably some supervision. You know, in case JARVIS forgets he's not supposed to let me near any suits or heavy machinery when I have been partaking of the booze."

"I would never forget, Sir." Aw, yes, his smooth bastard of an AI was totally against him when it counted. It was almost enough to bring a proud tear to his eye.

"See? So don't worry, really. That is, assuming you actually believe I'm going to fuck this up. Wouldn't surprise me; I'm pretty amazed I've managed to cling to Pep for this long, never mind adding Steve to the mix."

"You know it's just because we're cute, right? It just wouldn't do to leave you as a single dad." Tommy gave him the most enfuriating shit-eating grin he had seen in a while, and, yeah, he might have thought the boys actually were his if not for the whole from another world part. "Regardless of their fondness or lack thereof for you, they just couldn't be that cruel."

"Keep that up and I'll cancel the order for the new blast proof shields you've been drooling after, young man." Tony squared his shoulders. "Okay. Time to pretend I'm an actual human being, again."

"I'm pretty sure nobody's fooled, but that's fine." Billy grinned as well, then dug out his phone, checking the time. "And it's about time for me to get ready for my date with Teddy, too. Tommy, can you make sure he doesn't get distracted by anything on the way to the car?"

"You got it, bro."

"I'm not a child, you realize," Tony protested, though any actual vehemence was quite absent from his tone. No, he wasn't a child, but he could sometimes be quite easily distracted, and it would have been quite childish to even try and deny that.

And, hey, if that meant he got deposited at his car at the exact time for once and didn't leave Steve and Pepper waiting in their date finest, well, he supposed he could handle some reasonable doubts about his punctuality.

*

"So." Tony relaxed back into the seat, loosening his necktie just a bit. "How are we with the birthday preparations?"

"I thought we agreed not to talk about the kids during the date." And yet Pepper was smiling at him instead of frowning, so obviously she couldn't be that bothered.

"Which is why I'm bringing it up on the way there." Obviously his logic was sound, here. "You know we can't discuss it anywhere within the Tower or we'll risk being overheard."

"It's not that bad and you know it." Pepper shook her head, but the smile remained. "Fine. We can talk about the kids until we reach the restaurant. But once we're there, it's date time. Agreed?"

"Agreed." Steve answered in Tony's stead, looking incredibly serious. "So, where are we? Last time I visited the studio floor, there was construction going on everywhere."

"We're finished with that," Pepper replied. "I checked everything over myself before signing off on it. The unused space has been remodeled to specifications."

"Good." Steve nodded. "I've managed to track down everything Doctor Strange recommended, with his help, of course. Everything should be here in plenty of time to stock Billy's room before the actual day." He still looked just the tiniest bit uncomfortable whenever magic came up, however much Tony had tried to sell it to him as manipulating probabilities. Not that he liked it much himself, but at least he could just look at it as a kind of science he just hadn't mastered properly yet.

"Tommy's tech is almost finished," Tony added for his own part. "I've dome some extensive testing these last few days, and I've calibrated the holographic arrays to maximum speed. It still can't match Tommy's own max velocity, but the things should now react as fast as it's possible for the actual holograms to be readjusted."

"Hopefully that'll cut down on some of his complaints whenever he's working in your lab," Pepper murmured. "You do realize you are absolutely spoiling them, right?"

"No, I'm not. It's just fair they each get their own space. The rest of us have our places, and even Kate and Teddy have their studios. I mean, they even share their bedrooms, it's hardly unreasonable of me to give them labs of their own. And it does get Tommy out of my hair, or so I certainly hope."

"There's a difference between giving them their own space and furnishing those spaces to their full requirements." And there was that smile again, signaling that she did not entirely mean what she said.

"And yet you're helping me." Tony gave her a grin, knowing she could not deny what he'd said. "Come on. It's got to be worth eighteen birthday gifts, and neither of them wants a car, so I don't have that many alternatives."

"That, and you like spoiling people you like, no matter what the occasion." Judging by the way Steve pulled him closer, this was not meant as a criticism on him. "We've each certainly been in the receiving end of that generosity."

"Though I have to say, you do a lot better when you actually bounce your ideas off someone instead of just going with whatever you personally think is a good idea."

"Is that a criticism on my gifting skills? I'm hurt, Pepper, utterly betrayed and hurt beyond belief. That, and rather reconsidering my policy of giving you shiny things whenever I even think I might have offended you in any way."

"Oh, please. You couldn't stop giving people stuff if you tried." And apparently Pepper had a policy of rewarding such generosity with light kisses to the cheek, which, hey, he wasn't going to complain about that.

"What can I say? I'm just a giver by nature." He gave her a leer that earned him an elbow to the side from Steve. "What? You get to enjoy it, too."

"I suppose you could say that." There was the slightest hit of a blush on Steve's cheeks, but there was a grin, too. Tony certainly counted that as a success.

"Of course I can. I have extensive empirical evidence." Tony leaned his head on his shoulder, and no, he was never going to get enough of being able to do that, not that he was about to do so in public. "Are we there yet?"

"Almost," Pepper replied, glancing out of the window. "Ready to face the world?"

"As always." Tony grinned. "And you? Ready for another hit to your stellar reputations?"

Steve chuckled. "Nothing stellar about those since the first time we went out with both of us at your arm."

"Oh, I don't know. There's plenty of contrast there, you know, when people compare you with me. Kind of like the way the two of you look even taller next to me."

"I'm not tall," Pepper commented mildly. "I merely use my wardrobe to my full advantage."

"What you mean is your shoes are probably classified as lethal weapons." Tony grinned, adjusting his tie just a bit, though he did not bother to tighten it all the way. "One more scandalous affair photo shoot for the paparazzi, coming right up." 

Who cared what anyone thought of their sinful lifestyle? In the end, he was the one going home with two of the most gorgeous people alive.

Clearly, he was the Stark getting spoiled.

*

Teddy loved waking up before Billy.

It did happen often, given his non-human physiology, which meant he did not need nearly as much sleep as his dear boyfriend. However, there were the rare times Billy was up and about before him, just often enough that he didn't start to take these moments for granted. He certainly was going to enjoy it this time.

Billy was adorable when he was asleep. His lips were parted ever so slightly, with soft breaths brushing against Teddy's chest as he snuggled in close. A warm, snuggly witch right there in his arms, still a few moments from waking. What wasn't to love about that?

Except, of course, a warm, snuggly witch who seemed to be slowly stirring. Teddy shifted, leaning over Billy to place a small kiss on the tip of his nose. Apparently, this was enough to wake him. Billy blinked up at him, then gave him a small, sleepy smile. "Hello there."

"Hello to yourself, Sleeping Beauty." Teddy smiled back. "Feeling much older yet?"

"Define older. I'm not quite yet feeling all infirm and vulnerable, thanks." Billy gave a small yawn, and oh, that just had to be the most adorable thing in the history of things.

"Well, are you feeling like an adult yet?" Teddy couldn't help but grin. "I mean, you have reached something of a milestone."

"Ugh. Right. Don't remind me." Another yawn that should have been absolutely illegal in its adorableness. "And before you try to get cute, if you do remind me, I'll be forced to start musing about the maturing rates for Skrull and Kree and how those might intermix."

"Oh, please. JARVIS did a very good job with the fake identities, so clearly, I'm mere human like you."

"Mm… sorry, I'm going to have to disagree with you there. Nobody is allowed to say there's anything 'mere' about my amazing boyfriend."

Teddy chuckled. "It's good to know at least someone is defending my honor."

"Pretty sure it's part of the contract." Billy snuggled a bit closer. "So now that it's actually my birthday, are you finally allowed to tell me what this secret project is that's been going on?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Yeah, right. Like he could actually lie to Billy about, well, anything.

"Sure, Banner, lie to your poor fiancé on his birthday. Tommy might be happy not thinking too much on it, but I'm not an actual idiot. Soundproofing Kate's studio can't possibly require quite that much time and construction, and certainly not so much mystery."

"So perhaps Tony has very grandiose plans for your birthday, but still I'm not allowed to discuss them." Teddy shook his head. "You'll find out soon enough, I promise. And besides, there isn't much I could tell you anyway; they kept me and Kate pretty much in the dark specifically so we couldn't ruin the surprise."

"I'd say that's unexpectedly devious, but then there is very little that's unexpected about that." Billy gave him what had to be the most adorable pout in the history of human expression. "I don't even get a hint?"

"See, if I was mean, I could make some kind of a dirty joke about how you can certainly have a tip if you'd like. Sadly, as it stands, you'll just have to try and be patient."

Billy gave a dramatic sigh. "I hate it when you make sense."

"I know, I know. Can you ever forgive me? Clearly I could never deserve someone as amazing and beautiful as you are, but I try."

"Indeed. Clearly I'm destined for nothing but misery by your side. Poor me for being so stupidly in love with you." And this apparently meant he got a kiss. Hey, Teddy wasn't going to complain.

"You know we're being stupidly sappy, right?"

"I haven't woken up properly yet, plus it's my birthday. I've no idea what your excuse is, though." Billy rubbed his nose against Teddy's. "Maybe I should just ask what I'm getting from you, instead?"

"Oh, you know. My heart and body and soul, just like you do every day, as long as you want them." Teddy paused and then chuckled. "And clearly I have no right to speak of sappiness."

"Indeed you don't." Another kiss, this time a bit more demanding, and, yeah, Teddy had absolutely no complaints about that, either. "Now, do you think we'll be expected for breakfast just yet? Because I'm rather intrigued by that part about getting your body."

"Glad to hear that got your interest." Teddy grinned, his hand settling on Billy's chest. "I'm sure JARVIS can inform everyone that we will be along eventually."

"Sounds like a plan." This time it was Teddy who started the kiss, though the way Billy's hands tangled in his hair rather implied the feeling was mutual.

He had no idea whether Billy was going to enjoy his actual birthday present, but with this one, he was going to do his darnedest to make it everything Billy could wish for. Though then, that was what he always wanted to do.

He supposed it was fine to be a little sappy if you were so badly in love.

*

"You know," Steve said, glancing around the room full of people, "I'm not sure if I should be surprised this isn't more of a production or amazed that they actually know this many people to invite."

"Well, of course. They specifically said they only want guests they know or want to meet." Tony shrugged. Wearing one of his nicer suits, he managed to make even that look elegant. "I wasn't about to protest. If they'd wanted a big party, then they would have a big party, but I'm certainly not pushing for that. I have bad enough experiences of participating in things that were supposedly in my honor but filled with my father's business contacts and other strange faces."

"Well, I still wouldn't call this a small party." The reception hall wasn't as full as it had been during Tony's holiday charity reception, but it wasn't exactly empty, either. The people there were mostly young, in their teens or early twenties, with the occasional adult here and there. It was really a very mature party, for now at least. He had half expected water pistol wars or something similar, especially with Tommy being one of the stars of the day.

"I'm pretty sure they just went ahead and invited everyone they vaguely know and like. Which I'm not opposed to by any means; if they turn out better socialized than me, it's only going to be a blessing. And who knows? Maybe one of these kids wants to join the team some day."

"You're thinking too much, Tony." Not that that was an infrequent occurrence.

"Oh, please, Steve. We both know regular humans are kind of in the minority here." Tony chuckled. "Even if we count people like Clint and Natasha as regular, which I might protest to."

"Well, I did see Spider-Man and his team some time ago." They looked deceptively regular out of costume, but Steve wasn't about to be fooled. However normal they might act, he was a trained soldier, and one with enhanced skills of observation besides. He hadn't seen most of their faces before, yet he had recognized them simply by the way they moved.

"That, and then there's all the people from Xavier's school. From what I hear they're all pretty extraordinary."

"I do fear I have to take exception to that." A word from behind startled Steve. With so many people milling about, he hadn't even paid attention to someone approaching. "Not to say they aren't, but I happen to be of the opinion that all young people are exceptional in one way or another."

"Charles! Idealistic as ever, I see." Tony spun around with a wide grin, reaching to shake the newcomer's hand. A man who was older than Tony, if the bald head was any indication, sitting in a wheelchair. "It's been a while since I had the pleasure of speaking with you directly."

"Yes, well, we have both been quite busy." The man shook Tony's hand, smiling at him. "Though I notice you've rather made me proud nevertheless. I always said you would accomplish great things some day."

"Heaven forbid. If the word gets out, my reputation will be ruined." Tony snorted, then turned to Steve. "Charles, this is Steve Rogers, Captain America, hottest man alive and all that stuff. Steve, this is Charles Xavier. He used to be one of those strange faces at parties thrown by my father; I seriously doubt they had anything in common beyond sizable bank accounts."

"Tony!" Steve tried not to sound too scandalized, but it was hard. Thankfully their guest seemed more amused than anything. Which comment had caused the amusement remained to be seen, though.

"Oh, don't mind his bluntness, he is quite correct. Though it did give me the opportunity to meet young Tony, which I am very thankful for. He did help me with certain details."

"When SHIELD first put together the idea of the Avengers Initiative, they wanted to recruit some of his kids," Tony clarified. "Charles contacted me. I acted in my role as a SHIELD consultant to convince Fury that might not be a good idea." His lips twitched. "Of course, at that point I thought they only wanted your kids for their brains, and Charles was devious enough not to correct my assumptions."

"I run a school for, ah, gifted youngsters," Charles explained. "By which I mean gifted in much the same way young Billy and Tommy are, not in the ways Tony is. As you might understand, we are trying to lie low."

"Apparently they've had an agreement with SHIELD for quite some time," Tony said. "Charles helps them with any new mutant incidents, and in return they let him take the kids under his considerably sized wings and leave them be."

"Of course, there were some exceptions in the past." Charles's smile melted away for just a moment. "I never imagined they would ask again after what happened with Wanda and Pietro."

"Right." Steve swallowed. Tony had showed him the files. "That -- that was unfortunate."

"More so than you might know." The smile returned, though it was slightly sad this time. "Erik used to be a dear friend of mine. Both of us wanted only the best for our kind, but we rather disagreed on the methods. In the end, he chose a different path from mine, and that led him rather unfortunate places."

"So I've heard." Steve shook his head. "Ah. So. Tommy and Billy have been visiting your school?"

"Every now and then, yes. Enough so to have met quite a few of my students, as you can see." Charles waved his hand at the crowd. "When they extended the invitation to the birthday party, we were quite happy to accept. So many of these children rarely meet anyone outside the school and its immediate vicinity, so just coming to the Tower is a big change."

"You know, if some of the students or the teachers want to hang out a bit longer, we do have guest rooms," Tony offered. "I'm sure Billy'd be happy to do another portal tomorrow or the day after so they can get home after they've seen the city for a while. I'd be happy to feed some extra mouths as long as I'm not expected to be too social after the party itself."

"I'm delighted to see that even two lovers haven't changed your manners much." The words could have been harsh, but the smile that accompanied them reminded Steve more of Clint when he was teasing someone. Clearly Charles Xavier wasn't just sweet smiles and idealistic thoughts. "Thank you for the offer. I'll be sure to ask some of the older students if they would like to take the opportunity. It would be quite delightful to give them the chance to see more of the city."

"Just let me know the numbers so I know if I have to order more food for tomorrow." Tony waved a hand. "I can't promise an official tour or anything, but I suppose I could give out a couple of phones with JARVIS installed to act as a guide."

"A splendid idea." Charles frowned suddenly, then sighed. "I'm sorry, it seems my attention is required elsewhere. If you would excuse me?"

"Certainly." Tony merely smiled as Charles wheeled off, not appearing surprised at all at the sudden excuses.

Steve frowned. "What was that about?"

"Oh, leaving all of a sudden? Well, if what Billy and Tommy have told me is correct, he's a pretty damn good telepath. I'd figure something came up with one of his students."

Steve resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "Tony, telepaths don't exist."

"Nor do people who can fly, yet look at us." Tony chuckled. "Come on, telepaths are the least of it. That I can at least somewhat understand; brains are all chemistry and electricity, so it's not entirely unfeasible that there might exist a system that can project and receive those processes between people. It's certainly a lot easier to accept than Billy's magic or why Tommy isn't killed by the G forces every time he comes to a stop."

"I suppose when you put it like that it doesn't sound quite as unfeasible." Still rather strange and certainly beyond his usual experiences, but then, there was a lot in the last few years of his life -- not including time spent in ice -- that was beyond any ordinary human experience. That, and there was currently someone walking on the ceiling, so obviously things weren't that ordinary at all. "I didn't know we had that many guest rooms."

"Oh, right, that. Yeah, I took the next floor down and had it done over while we had the men working on the boys' labs." At Steve's hard gaze, Tony gave an exasperated sigh. "Oh, come on. It's not like I kicked out anyone who had been working there; I'd kept a couple of floors empty just in case we needed to extend further, and besides it is a security issue. This way there's a buffer of empty rooms between us and the part of the Tower that's in regular use, but we can also use them when needed."

"And we need an entire floor's worth of guest rooms? One of the larger floors, too, not just in the top part of the building?"

"Well, clearly, or I couldn't have made that offer right now, could I?" Tony shrugged. "It's fitted with all the same security and systems as the rest of the private area, so it can double as a SHIELD safe house in a pinch. And besides, I wasn't joking about possibly extending the team in the future. Perhaps none of Charles's kids take the bait, but I wouldn't be surprised if Spider-Man and his buddies might be interested once they're done with high school. If that happens, it'll definitely help if we have somewhere to put them."

"I suppose that's true." Steve shook his head, then blinked as something caught his eye. "Well. That's the second blue person I've seen today. Wait, is that offensive?"

"I think in this case it's a pretty apt description." Tony looked over to where this second blue person, a rather sizable figure covered in blue fur, was engaged in a rather lively conversation with Bruce. "I'm pretty sure that's Dr. McCoy. I hear he's both brilliant and strong enough to tear things apart with his bare hands. I'm not surprised Brucey can relate."

"And the other one?" He had been even more striking in appearance, Steve recalled, with his strange anatomy. "The one with, ah, the tail?"

"That would be Kurt Wagner." And why was it that Tony deliberately chose to pretend that he didn't remember anyone's name when it was clear his memory for people and names was at least as good as Steve's own? "He's one of the teachers at the school. I had a short chat with him earlier; he's a rather interesting man."

"Not interesting in the wrong way, I hope." The familiar voice made them both turn with smiles on their faces as Pepper walked up to them.

"Oh, my dearest, you know that even if there was that interest, I would never stray." Tony flashed her a bright grin, taking both of her hands in his. "You and Steve are the only ones for me."

"That is quite a relief. I rather doubt his boyfriend would much approve of you trying to make a move." The smile Pepper gave Tony was saccharine sweet. "Not that I wouldn't pay for a ticket to see the show."

"Oh, Pep, you wound me! I never expected such treachery of you, my sweetest little pumpkin." Tony paused, then blinked. "Wait, boyfriend? Who has a boyfriend?"

"Now, try and pay attention, Tony." She leaned forward to press a kiss on the tip of his nose, then turned toward Steve. "I would say this party seems to be going rather well."

"I have to agree. Though I haven't seen either Billy or Tommy in a while, so I can't really say for sure."

"I saw Tommy talking with Johnny Storm just a moment ago. And yes, I reminded them not to let anything catch fire. I'd rather not have a repeat of that fiasco from the holiday reception." Pepper shook her head and tsked. "Really, that one could have been so much worse."

"But it wasn't, and we learned our lesson, so all is well." Tony grinned. "Though you have to admit it got the old idiots moving rather fast."

Pepper snorted. "Of course that is what you would be concerned about. You're lucky the Oscorp New Year's party was targeted by those would-be robbers, or it would have been the greatest faux pas of the holiday season."

"The most incompetent robbers I've seen so far," Tony snorted. "Kate and Natasha took them down without even taking their heels off before the security could get there. I'm glad they showed up, though; that gave us the perfect excuse to get home early. I've got to say our private party was much better than Osborn's shindig."

"I hate to appear rude, but I have to agree." Though then, Steve always preferred the intimate, personal parties to huge formal affairs. In the latter he always felt like he was on display, only there as Captain America, while at home he could just be Steve, eating chips with his champagne and not caring whether he was in a suit or a t-shirt.

"I'm pretty sure you can be forgiven just this once." Pepper smiled, then slipped between them. "So, how about we go take a little walk around the room? I know they're your sons' guests, Tony, but that doesn't mean we can't at least have a look around. You do want to know what kind of company they keep, don't you?"

"They're in a team that includes yours truly, government-sanctioned assassins, and a pagan god. I'm pretty sure it'd be hard to top that as far as questionable influences go." Tony grinned. "Admit it. You're just worried that if you aren't there to keep an eye on me, I'd be eyeing high school girls."

Pepper snorted. "Please. I do hope you'd know better than that. And besides, I have full confidence in Steve and his ability to keep you in line."

"I do try." Steve smiled at them both. Despite her words, he knew Pepper was hardly as suspicious of Tony as she claimed. "But then, I believe you just want me around to take advantage of my body heat when we get up on the roof for the fireworks."

"Ah, smart and hot. Exactly how I like my men. Oh, and there's Tony, too. Exception makes the rule, and all that." Pepper hooked her arms through theirs. "Now, come on. It might not be our party, but we do at least have the responsibility to make sure nothing gets blown up."

"You're such a killjoy, my sweet cereal. You really are a textbook case of evil stepmothers." Tony was smiling, though, and so was Pepper, and Steve found himself echoing their expressions as they mixed in with the crowd, looking for their wayward teens.

When he had been young, he had sometimes tried to imagine his life in the future. The most hopeful images had included a wife and kids, a tiny little house, and enough money from his work to put food on their table and shoes on his kids' feet. Now here he was, with two people he would never marry because he couldn't bear to pick one over the other, in their huge tower filled with people who were all there to celebrate the birthday of the closest thing he had to children. The closest thing he would ever have to children, in all likelihood, as things were turning out.

It wasn't a bad change, he decided, from everything he had envisioned. He had more than enough family, more than he had ever dared to dream of, with the whole team and Jane and Darcy and other such attachments. For all that he would probably never watch his son or daughter take their first steps, he had talked with Tommy about college and motorbikes, had helped Billy pick out the best markers to buy for Teddy, and honestly he would be quite disappointed if neither of the boys decided to gift them with a couple of grandkids sometime in the distant future. It was nothing like he had imagined, but there were people laughing around him and someone was dancing on the ceiling, and the New York skyline behind the windows was strange and familiar at the same time, and honestly if this was different from his dreams it was only because he hadn't known how much more he could hope for.

There was nothing more he could wish for, nothing he would change.

He could only hope things would stay this way.

*

"You know what, Kate? I'm leaving you." Tommy twirled about in the middle of his very own lab like he just couldn't contain his excitement. Which, this being Tommy, was probably the case. "I mean, I'm sorry and all that shit, but this? This place is going to be my one true love from here on."

"If I thought for a moment you were serious, I might be offended at being compared unfavorably to a bunch of wires and machinery," Kate replied with a chuckle, leaning against the door frame as she watched her dork of a boyfriend dancing about in the middle of computer screens and work benches. "As it is, I'll just smile and nod until you realize that your new love doesn't actually have boobs, at which point you'll come running back to me."

"Hey, it could have boobs! I could totally give the lab a nice pair of boobs if I wanted to. I just like yours better." And here was Tommy stopping right in front of her with a rather worrying leer, yet all he did was lean in for a quick kiss. "How did you guys keep all this a secret? I didn't even believe Tony when he announced the whole thing at lunch."

"Lots of conspiracy, mysteries and lies." Kate smiled. "Don't credit me with too much part in this, though. My contribution was strictly in the department of directing your attention elsewhere while the work was going on. My gift was the welding mask that matches your costume goggles; this was all Tony, Steve, and Pepper."

"Hush. Just let me be amazed, okay?" Tommy gave her a grin. "I can't wait to get to try everything in here! There's even a miniature blast chamber. I can't believe they'd let me have my own!"

"I was considering comparing you to a kid in a candy store, but even the most hyper brat would not have even nearly the potential for destruction that you could wield here."

"True enough." And of course Tommy accompanied that with another bright grin. "Did you see that there's a couch at the back with the biggest screen? We can totally have private movie nights and snuggle together there."

"Or you'll end up taking a leaf out of Tony's book and crash there in exhaustion after a long night. Goodness knows lack of any hint of self-preservation is definitely a family trait." Though she rather suspected she would end up dragging him to bed more often than not. Really, it was her own fault for falling for such a hopeless case.

"Oh, please. That's just not going to happen." He picked up a couple of small tools at one of the workbenches, starting to juggle them in the air. "A lonely little couch down here, against a warm bed with you in it? There's just no contest."

"Assuming I'm going to let you in it if you show up at weird hours in the morning." Kate shook her head, though she was fighting a smile. "Especially if you've first been ignoring me to spend time with your latest love."

"Oh, I'm sure you'll find it in your heart to forgive me. If you didn't, you would have dumped my sorry ass ages ago." Tommy stopped his constant motion for a second to give her a serious look. "Thanks for not doing that, by the way."

"What, for not dumping you?" Kate rolled her eyes. "After everything you've put me through, you'd have to do a lot more than act like an ass for me to do that."

"Oh, please. We both know the only reason you haven't left me yet is because you're afraid I'd turn to the dark side without you keeping me in check." And all of a sudden Tommy was right there again, giving her his most charming grin as he looped his arms around her waist.

"You'd better believe it. I damn well didn't become a hero just so I could be a sidenote in someone else's supervillain origin story."

"But therein lies the beauty of it." Tommy drew her closer. "I'd soon become disillusioned with my sordid life of world domination and scantily clad slave girls, and then you would be there, pure of heart and purpose, ready to show me the way to finding my true self."

"Like you expect me to believe you'd go for world domination," Kate tsked. "That's just too much trouble. Your version of villainy would be running around furniture stores ripping tags off mattresses while laughing like a maniac."

"Well, if we're going to be realistic, I wouldn't necessarily have to become a villain to do that. Sounds like a fun afternoon to me."

"Of course it does. But for now, how about you restrict your villainous instincts to simply swiping Tony's schematics and trying to make them faster?"

"I rather like the way you think, Miss Barton." And apparently his way of showing this was to nibble on her earlobe. "Want to be my partner in crime?"

"Pretty sure I've already doomed myself to a lifetime of doing just that." And yet, she couldn't really bring herself to care.

Today was great, and things were only going to get better.

*

Billy had still not gotten used to his little lair, though he had spent most of the last few days holed up in it. To a casual observer, it wasn't that special, just a room with a sturdy desks and plenty of shelves lining the walls, yet from the first time he walked in, he'd felt the magic. It was thrumming through the air around him, filtered into the room from the various tomes and artifacts already collected on the shelves. In such a closed space, it was almost enough to match the heavy atmosphere of Strange's house. And against all odds, everything in here belonged to him, every last trinket and loose page.

Tommy likely thought he'd had the better gift, with his very own lab to play around in. That just showed he had no idea what all this magic could do.

He had already gone through his newly acquired collection to notice it included all the books Strange had told him to read; in fact, he was quite certain at least some of them were the very same copies he had been lent by the Sorcerer Supreme. Others were new, accompanied by all manner of ingredients and trinkets, and objects that either were magical or were claimed to be so. He was actually having fun trying to figure out what everything on the shelves could or couldn't do, once he had got his wards up. For all that he was still a mere student of the magical arts, he knew better than to leave such a collection of magical items without proper wards in place. Obviously his dear teacher agreed, as Stephen had been quite happy to help him with designing the appropriate wards for the room.

Now, though, the wards were in place and all the books and objects had been arranged on the shelves, which meant he could focus on all the fun stuff. Or he could have, if someone hadn't knocked on the door just as he had opened a book.

"Billy?" A voice called through the door, accompanied by another knock. "You in there? There's a package for you."

Oh, great, that would have to be the tome he had been waiting for. "Coming!" He walked over to the door and opened it, smiling as he saw Clint outside. "Thanks for bringing it by."

"Wow." Clint blinked at the half-lit shadows inside. "You forget to turn the proper lights on?"

"It's kind of a must, I'm afraid," he said, waving for Clint to get inside. "Too much magic in the air messes with pretty much any circuit, so the room doesn't have any wiring. So, it's old-timey lights or magic only." Tony had promised to try and make him a battery-operated lamp with enough insulation that it wouldn't be affected, but for now, that was still a distant dream.

"And the only place above the SI floors that doesn't come with integrated JARVIS, I suppose." Clint stepped further into the room. "I bet Tony gets hives just thinking about this place."

"Eh, I think he's already accepted I'm the closest thing to a luddite this family's ever going to have. Which is not very close, with all the electronics I use elsewhere."

"Yeah, I don't think anyone's particularly afraid that you'll start throwing rocks at the TV and wailing about how it's the devil." Clint shifted the package in his hands. "So, dare I ask what's in here? Three years' worth of comic books?"

Billy chuckled. "Actually, it's an old tome I've been looking for," he said. "It's not strictly speaking magical, but it does overlap with my area of interest. That, and it's supposed to be impossible to read by any light other than magical glow."

"And where'd you finally get it?"

"Where else? I found it on e-bay." Billy grinned. "I was hoping to start growing my own collection. Can't say I expected this to be a minor addition instead of the main piece."

"Yeah, Tony really went all out with this thing." Clint shook his head, but looked amused. "Where do you want this? I'm assuming I'm not supposed to drop it on your toes."

"Just put it there on the table." His book on magical items would just have to step aside. He'd already read it before, anyway.

Clint made to do as asked, but then paused, looking at the currently open book. "What's that?"

"Huh? That's my magical item reference. Obviously it doesn't list even a small part of all magical objects out there, but it's a pretty good summary of the most dangerous ones." And thus the ones it was absolutely critical for him to recognize in a hurry.

"No, no, I figured that. I just… that." Clint set the tome down with a heavy thud so he could point at the picture on the page. "It's got info on that thing?"

"Hm?" Billy stepped forward to remind himself of what page he had been working on. "Oh. That's the scepter of Thanos. There's really not that much data on it, though, just a general description. Why?" He frowned. "You've seen it before?"

"Seen it?" Clint laughed, with a slightly hysterical edge to it. "That's what Loki used."

"Used? You mean when he…" Billy's eyes widened. "That's what he used to take over your mind?" No wonder Loki had found it so easy to gain allies. The scepter was supposed to hold the power to tie mortal souls to its service.

"Wish it were just that." Another laugh, this time sounding more bitter than anything. "Nah, that thing stole something much more important."

"What —" was all Billy got out before Clint turned and rushed away, not even bothering to close the door behind him. Not that Billy blamed him; he certainly wouldn't have liked any reminders of something that had stripped off his free will.

Well. Free will, and something that Clint considered more important than even that.

Clearly there was something going on here that he had to look into.


	2. Stranger Things

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After getting some information and a favor out of Tony, Billy gets started on a plan to set things right. Teddy isn't happy with how things aren't developing, however supportive he tries to be. However, after ice giants strike Central Park, things take a sudden turn for the worse as Kate runs into someone... improbable.

"What do you mean, what Loki took from Hawkass?"

"You heard me." Billy was leaning against a workbench, one hand idly petting Dummy's head, as though the silly thing even felt it. "I know he brainwashed him, more or less. What else did he take?"

"That's kind of vague. Are you sure there is anything else?" Tony lifted his eyebrows. Yes, he had already come to notice that being a parent sometimes meant answering the strangest questions, but this had to be the strangest one yet. "I mean, most people would consider that to be a pretty big issue."

"He said there was something." Billy shrugged. "I'd have asked him, but frankly it didn't look like he was up to talking about it."

"Well, then, I'm going to need some details." Tony turned his eyes back to the part of You's arm that he was working on fixing. "How exactly did this come up?"

"He brought something to my room and saw my book on magical items. It was open to Thanos's scepter, and he reacted pretty badly. When I asked if that was what Loki used to take his mind, he just said he wished that'd been all Loki took."

"Okay, that'd make me curious, too." Tony hmmed thoughtfully. "Let's see… ah!" He snapped his fingers. "You know, I actually do think I know what it is. The trouble isn't with Loki, though, it's the scepter. Well, it was Loki's doing, but still, the scepter."

"Oh?" He heard Billy step closer. "So what is it about the scepter that shocked him so much, then?"

"You know Loki killed a lot of people." That much the kids had at least heard. "Magic, mind-controlled slaves, mercenaries, the whole nine yards. However, to our knowledge, only one person was directly killed by the scepter."

"And that was?" The frown was clearly audible in Billy's voice.

"Agent Coulson, of SHIELD. The Avengers liaison, such as there was one. And no matter how much the Widow tells me to leave it well enough alone, nothing will convince me he wasn't involved with Clint."

"Involved? You mean…"

"I mean, Coulson told Pepper he was dating a cellist. And here we have a guy he was in close contact with who makes his living handling a bow. Who, by the way, told Tommy that he's gay and his fiancé died on him. Kind of hard not to add two and two, there."

"And he was killed by the scepter?"

"Oh, yeah. Stabbed through the heart, right there in the helicarrier while Legolas was wreaking havoc there. The poor thing died in Fury's arms."

"And the scepter?" Billy's voice dropped lower, now. "Where is it?"

"Far as I know? Up in the Helicarrier. Unlike the Tesseract it didn't come from Asgard, and far as we could tell you couldn't use it without magic so we didn't have to worry about Fury turning it into a weapon of mass destruction. Still not a guarantee, of course, but nobody protested to SHIELD taking custody of it."

"Wait. It's on the Helicarrier?" Now, Billy's tone finally made him look up to see the boy staring at him in shock. "Just like that, without any precaution?"

"Well, he did seal it away. We figured it wasn't exactly good for the morale, though how much of that was Loki's tricks and how much was the scepter's direct influence is unclear. Why?"

"Did he at least have it purified?"

"What, against evil forces or something? Not far as I know. We had Loki shackled and carried away, and from what Thor told us he's now dead anyway, so it's not like he's going to come back for it."

"He might not need to." Billy drew a deep breath. "The scepter, it — it channels the powers of its user. Amplifies them. And in doing so, it draws in little pieces of their power over time. If you use it long enough without precautions, you'll end up with nothing left."

"And we should be worried about it potentially weakening an already dead demi-god?"

"Not particularly, no. But it might be worth our while to worry about pieces of Loki's magic still residing inside it."

Now, Tony put down his tools. Obviously, this deserved his full attention. "You think that's possible?"

"I can't say for sure without seeing it, but yeah, very much possible." Billy chewed on his lower lip. "From what I've heard, he certainly used it enough to leave something behind."

"And that something might cause some nasty surprises?"

"Again, I can't say for sure. But it's possible."

"And what would it take for you to be sure?" Because the idea of a ticking magical time bomb was not exactly pleasant.

"Well, I'd have to actually see it for myself." Billy shrugged. "It'd be obvious enough, I think. Chaos magic tends to be pretty distinctive, and I happen to be something of an expert."

"And if there was something, could you do something about it?" Tony paused. "In a way that won't bring the building down on us?"

"I'm sure I could. Stephen's pretty big on neutralizing dangerous stuff, it was the first thing he had me studying. Probably figured it'd be useful." Again, the chewed lip. "It'd probably take some time, though. Things like that can get pretty complicated."

"So it wouldn't just be enough for me to get you up on the Helicarrier and ask Fury to pop the lid open for a second."

"Afraid not, no." Billy sighed. "I'd probably need to get it down here so I can study it properly."

"Yeah, well, that's not happening." Tony shook his head. "Loki remnants or no, there's no way I'm going to argue Fury into letting me borrow that thing, never mind bringing it under my roof. It's caused enough trouble as it is."

So why was he already thinking of how to word his request?

*

"Here's your revised schedule for the day, Boss." A flick of Darcy's fingertip sent the list from her tablet to Pepper's phone, because apparently Tony thought using paper for things like that was so 2010 or something, and just had to have his very own app for it, can't you see Pepper, this is the only way you'll ever survive the CEO gig. "I moved back your meeting with Oscorp just enough to let their representative stew, but not so much that it'd seem impolite."

"Thank you, Darcy." Pepper held back a smile. She had to say she was rather satisfied in Tony's choice of a PA for her. For the longest time she had convinced herself she didn't actually need one all the time, after all she had basically been doing all of the CEO stuff back when she had technically been Tony's PA, so when her last one had taken a position elsewhere she'd tried to make do without. However, it had very quickly become clear that if she wanted to be taken seriously, an extra buffer between her and all the people who wished to annoy her was simply necessary, and with all the condescending idiots she had to deal with on an almost daily basis she was not going to give them any more fuel to think she wasn't actually CEO enough to head SI.

One of these days said idiots would be leaving her office with a stab wound. Her heels were certainly pointy enough.

Now, though, she had Darcy, who apparently had gotten enough of a taste of the Avenger life that she had been quite happy to take up the job once her internship with Jane was over. She was not quite what Pepper had imagined she needed in an assistant, but she got the job done, and Pepper rather approved of her attitude. Nobody was going to give her undue trouble with Darcy acting as a gatekeeper.

"So." Darcy was still standing there, looking like she wasn't quite sure if she should have stayed. "You know that thing you asked me to do a while ago?"

"There are a lot of things I have asked you to do. So far I can't recall any that would merit further concerns." Pepper raised an eyebrow. "Has that perhaps changed?"

"Not on the job. Just... remember when you asked me to let you know if one of your men was being an idiot and you might not have noticed?" As Pepper nodded, suddenly wary, Darcy sighed. "Does that go for the twins, too?"

"Depends on the kind of idiocy." It was better than Steve or Tony getting something stupid into their heads, but she still wasn't entirely convinced it wasn't a problem. "I'm listening."

"So I can't say for sure what's going on, but I've kind of noticed something lately." Darcy pretended to inspect her nails, as though she didn't keep them immaculately decorated with the most headache-inducing shades of neon polish available. Pepper was convinced it was her way of making people underestimate her before she struck them to the ground with ruthless efficiency and a polite smile, please do call again later. "About Billy, that is."

"Billy?" Pepper frowned. That was strange. She would have expected Tommy to be the problem child; he usually was. "What's going on with him?"

"As I said, I'm not sure. I do know, though, that he's been locking himself up in his magic room a lot lately." Darcy shrugged. "Which isn't that special, getting obsessed over a project kind of seems to run in the family, except he's actually neglecting Teddy because of it. And even I know him well enough to know he doesn't do that lightly."

"That's certainly true." Pepper fiddled with a pen, turning the idea over in her head. No, Billy neglecting Teddy was not an ordinary occurrence. "Are you sure he's putting it before Teddy?"

"Well, I've kind of noticed Teddy getting somewhat snappish with him lately, so I'm inclined to say yes." Darcy made a face, now. "It's not fighting, not quite, but I've got a feeling it might develop into something like that if things don't change soon."

"Right. Thank you for letting me know." Her first headache and it wasn't even 9 in the morning. This was promising. "I'll see if I can talk with Billy about it, or ask Tony to do so."

"I'd recommend Steve. Billy listens to him best, possibly because, you know, big and blond and muscular seems to be kind of his thing." Darcy took a better grip on her tablet, now. "But right now we've got a full day to get to, so I'll try not to worry you any further."

"Thank you for the consideration." Which probably would be rather useless, given that she was definitely going to worry about this whenever she had a moment free. Not that she expected to have much spare time, but then Darcy seemed to have an almost magical ability of arranging for tiny pockets of calm and quiet in her day whenever there was something she really should have been thinking about yet would have rather avoided. She never was quite sure if she should have thanked her or threatened to fire her, but then it wasn't like she was ever going to find anyone who was better at filtering all the e-mails from Tony in order of actual importance so the point was moot, anyway.

Stupid Starks and their deficient social skills.

Stupid her for falling so in love with one.

*

Everything was ready.

Okay, that was a lie. The preparations were ready, as much as he could ever get them, but he was far from convinced he was ready, himself. But then, that was not a matter of time or preparation. He could have waited ten years and still not have been any closer to readiness.

Better get it out of the way, then.

Of course, his nervousness was probably just that, nerves. There was no actual reason for him to hesitate. The process itself was a complex one, but it should have been within his power, and he'd made his plans as carefully as possible. He'd studied all his books and tomes, looked up everything that seemed even remotely relevant, scribbled down pages and pages of notes to make sure he was accounting for every contingency. This was not something he could afford to get wrong.

He'd already put too much time and energy into this, anyway. He knew Teddy was starting to grow impatient, though of course he tried not to show it, being perfect as he was. So far he had accepted Billy's explanations that he was working on something big and he would tell him once it was over, but Billy knew that would not be enough for much longer. He'd just have to get it over with, for better or worse, and then either celebrate with Teddy or whine about his failure.

It was simple enough in theory. The scepter was designed to capture hearts, or possibly souls, when it was touched over the heart of the target. Which meant that when it went through Coulson's heart, there was a good chance it had created a bond with him. And when his body then lost its life, his soul might have been captured in the scepter.

So far, he couldn't tell if Coulson was inside. What he could tell, however, was that someone was. Whether that was the presumed dead agent or remnants of Loki's schemes remained to be seen.

Of course, all that mattered was whether he figured it out before he managed to give that consciousness a physical form.

That was really the part that worried him the most. He knew it was possible, knew he had done so before, his own presence in this world being a perfect proof of such. However, accomplishing it on purpose was another matter entirely. The worst case scenario was him ending up with a dead body on the floor. Well, that, or a dead body occupied by a previously dead demigod. It all really depended on how one defined "worst".

Well. It was time to find out.

He'd long since finished the circle designed to keep Loki from escaping if worse came to worst, checking and re-checking every symbol several times. He knew the incantations, knew the wards and back-ups and last resorts, and if everything went to hell anyway he could always fall back on wishing really hard and letting his magic work its way through the problem. It wasn't the preferred method, he wanted to keep chaos as far away from something this volatile as possible, but he knew it would have the power to put a stop to anything untoward that might happen.

Oh, he hoped nothing would happen.

The scepter seemed to have a mind of its own as he drew it into the circle, bringing it to float in the air just barely beyond his grasp, the gem shining with a cold, bluish light. It was so similar to his own magic, crackling at his fingertips like so many tiny sparks of electricity, yet even the sight of it sent a cold shiver through his body. Oh, he knew all too well what that kind of magic could accomplish.

He knew all too well why he couldn't allow it to accomplish anything at all.

The words came without much thought, the result of tireless practice over and over again, drawing power from the well deep within him that never seemed to run dry. It was easy, he kept telling himself, a tiny voice at the back of his mind repeating the words incessantly. It was easy, and he'd done it before, and damn it he would not allow himself to fail, not now. Not when so much happiness was riding on the results of his attempt.

Someone was watching him.

He wasn't sure who or how or where, but he was certain of it, could feel sharp eyes on himself. Eyes that were watching, examining, wondering. Trying to see through him.

Then there were hands, invisible to his eyes but firm and solid in his, grasping his, drawing him close. Or perhaps they were trying to draw something out toward him, he couldn't tell for sure. Someone was there, though, right within his grasp, and he only needed a little further —

The magic coursed through him, and for a moment, everything went white.

*

The wave of magic was sudden enough that she dropped her cup of tea, her hands shaking in the aftershock.

She was left gasping for air, trying to get herself under control. It had been a long while since she had even felt someone else's magic, never mind being affected by it so greatly. This wasn't anywhere close, she could tell that, but despite the distance it seemed to be calling to her. It shouldn't have, there was no reason for it to, yet here she was leaning against the kitchen counter, struggling to catch her breath.

"Sister?" And all of a sudden he was right there, a hand on her arm. Of course. He always was there whenever she needed him, no matter what. "Is everything all right?"

"I — I think so, yes." She was still shaking slightly, though the way she clutched the kitchen counter calmed her hands somewhat. "I was just startled, that's all."

"Startled?" He frowned. "By what?"

"Nothing important, I'm sure." She shook her head, working to give him a smile. She was fairly sure it didn't convince him one bit, but at least she had to try.

"Please. You know you can't lie to me."

"I suppose not." She sighed. "It's nothing important, though, really. It's just… magic."

"Magic?" He frowned, not that she could blame him. It probably didn't sound good.

"Right. Nothing worth being alarmed, I'm sure. Someone just did magic that… felt familiar."

"Familiar? How?"

"I don't know. I think it was… similar to mine, in some way." She shook her head. "It's not anyone I know, that much I'm sure of, nor was it anywhere near. I honestly don't know why it would affect me so."

"If you say so." He didn't sound very convinced, though. "Maybe you should go lie down for a bit?"

"I'll be fine, I promise." Now, her smile was somewhat more genuine. He really was so good to her. "But if it eases your mind, I'll sit down for a bit once I've cleaned up this mess."

"Don't bother, I'll take care of that." He let go of her arm at last, patting her on the shoulder. "You go sit down, I'll take care of this."

"Thank you." Truly, he spoiled her, as always. "I don't think it's anything to worry about, though, I promise."

"Just humor me." He gave her a surprisingly serious look. "Strange magic echoes rarely mean anything good."

"I'll go and rest." She smiled. She really was in such good hands with him looking over her.

Now, if she could just forget this feeling that she should have been somewhere else entirely.

*

When Teddy got to the living room after JARVIS had alerted him to an emergency, almost everyone was there already there.

Clint was away on a SHIELD mission, with Natasha as a back-up, so their absence was to be expected. Most of the rest of the team was already gathered, though, in various stages of readiness. Tony was standing to the side, flitting through his screens with swift fingers while talking with a serious-looking Jane, while everyone else was gathered around Cap. Kate was already wearing her uniform, Teddy noted, while Bruce was shifting his weight from one foot to another, looking the kind of anxious Teddy wasn't sure they wanted him looking.

Billy wasn't there. Billy rarely was anywhere but his own little world, lately.

"Ah, Teddy. Good to see you got here so fast. We've got a bit of a situation, I'm afraid." Cap sighed. "Apparently there's a group of ice giants running amok in the city."

"Ice giants?" Teddy blinked. "You mean, like Jotun?"

"That is exactly it." Thor gave him a grave nod. "It is unclear what attracted them here. However, we fear more will follow if they are not quickly subdued."

"So we'd better get a move on." Good thing he'd gotten dressed appropriately already. "What's the situation?"

"Currently they are still all situated in Central Park. Spider-Man and his team are already at location. However, they won't be able to hold them back." Cap turned towards the rest of the group, who probably had already been briefed before Teddy got there. "Tommy, can you take Kate? Tony's giving me a lift, and Thor has Bruce covered, but we need everyone there as soon as possible."

"On it." Tommy nodded and disappeared in a blur, only to return dressed in his costume, carrying Kate's bow and quiver. She took them from him with a nod.

"Someone has to get Billy," Kate pointed out as she checked her quiver and then settled it on her back. "He's in his room again, so he hasn't heard JARVIS." Though whether he would have come even if he had heard remained to be seen, said a mean little voice at the back of Teddy's mind that he couldn't entirely ignore.

"I'll go tell him." Teddy didn't pause to hear if anyone protested, not that he expected anyone would. Of course he would get Billy. That was what he did, right? This was his boyfriend, after all. His fiancé.

It might have been nice if Billy had remembered it more often, though.

Teddy hurried down the corridors, not wanting to dally even if he did not exactly cherish the conversation to come. This was a serious situation, and they had to respond as soon as they could. He had no doubt the others would already be on their way once he got back up to get out, but that was no problem. He could fly pretty fast, and it wasn't like he had to go far.

The door to Billy's room was locked as Teddy tried the handle, not that it surprised him overly much. It tended to be that regardless of Billy's presence, and Teddy didn't really begrudge him for it. Some of his experiments could get hazardous, especially if he was surprised, and this building was full of people who rather enjoyed surprising others at the worst possible moment. However, even though he knew it was perfectly rational, he couldn't help the slight feeling of resentment as he had to knock and call out to reach his boyfriend in an emergency.

And then Billy didn't even answer at first. Wasn't that just perfect.

Teddy called out again, louder this time. It was a thick door, he reasoned, doing his best to feel charitable. Perhaps Billy just hadn't heard him the first time.

Indeed, this time he soon heard the sound of a key in the lock, and the door was opened. Teddy opened his mouth already, prepared to rattle off the specifics of the situation.

He was not exactly prepared for what he saw as his boyfriend came into view.

It was Billy, obviously, dressed in his costume. That in itself wasn't very surprising; Billy tended to wear it whenever he worked on magic, as it felt more natural to him like that, given how big a part his heroics had played in his magical career. However, against the semi-darkness of the room behind him, Teddy could see tiny blue sparks dancing around the tips of Billy's hair, messed up as though after a fight or a strong breeze. There was an exhausted look on his face, similar to Tony after too many nights of too little sleep right before Cap or Pepper dragged him off to bed, but Teddy knew that couldn't be the problem. Billy had been quite well rested just that morning, yet now he looked like he hadn't had a proper night's sleep all week.

"Teddy." Billy's tone was flat, suggesting no emotion at seeing him. That was strange, too. Billy wore his heart in his sleeve, always had. For all that they loved each other, Teddy always knew when Billy was annoyed or angry with him, as well as he knew when Billy was happy to see him. Now, though, there was no hint of any of that in his voice or expression, just tiredness. "Something the matter?"

"Ice giants," Teddy blurted before he could gather himself, then rallied to regain his composure. "Billy, what's going on? You look terrible."

"So very kind of you." Billy stepped out into the corridor, turning to close the door. He locked it with an almost careless gesture, then placed the key somewhere within his cape. Teddy knew it was not supposed to have any pockets, yet somehow it managed to hold whatever he hid in it. Mages and their mysteries. "Always nice to know you're not dating me just for my looks."

"That's not what I meant." Teddy frowned. Definitely strange. Even when Billy was being short with him, at least he usually made the effort to show his anger. "You look absolutely exhausted! What have you been doing?"

"Nothing." Billy brushed past him, shaking his head. "Nothing of any consequence, anyway."

"Billy, stop that." He placed a hand on Billy's arm, firm enough to make a point, yet careful not to hold on so tight Billy couldn't free himself if he wanted to. He would have never used his strength against Billy, he had sworn that to himself long ago. "Is this that secret project of yours? Billy, I don't care what it is, but it's not worth killing yourself over!" Hyperbole, sure, but he'd rather exaggerate than see it become reality. And for all that they were lacking in shared genetics, Tony was not the only Stark with the tendency to overwork himself when he thought it was necessary for the best of someone else.

"No, it's not." Billy shook his head again. "And you shouldn't worry about that one, either."

"And why not?" Teddy couldn't help the slightly sharp tone to his voice. Even he had his limits, damn it. "That thing, whatever it is, has been stealing you away for weeks now! I don't know what you're doing there, and I've done my best not to bug you about it, but I'm getting to be at the end of my rope, here. I know you think it's important, but at this point, I'm starting to wonder just why it's more important than me!"

"I said not to worry about it." Billy turned to look at him, his eyes tired. "That one's been put into the failure pile."

Teddy almost burst out again, about to say something very unfortunate about how he'd thus been denied his boyfriend's attention all for nothing, and wasn't that just fucking splendid and thanks so much for caring, really, but something stopped him. It wasn't just exhaustion that he saw now, the blank mask falling away for a moment, not even disappointment at the failure. No, this expression was something else entirely.

That was what Billy looked like when he thought he had let someone down.

For a moment Teddy hesitated. He knew how Billy got in those situations, and while he did think his dearest fiancé could have worried less, he also knew Billy didn't get that worked up for nothing. Obviously this whole affair had been more important than he had perhaps realized.

"Bee." He softened his voice, though it took more effort than he might have liked to admit. "Bee, what's going on? You're worrying me." Scaring me, he didn't say, but he supposed Billy could probably hear it anyway. "You said you'd tell me when it's over, right?" And if it had failed, it was over, whatever it had been. For better or worse.

"Not now, Tee." Billy made to give him a smile, but it never reached his eyes. "We're in a hurry, aren't we? Ice giants threatening our beloved city?"

"I -- right." He nodded. "Yeah, that's right."

"So. Where are they?" Billy was already floating in that telltale way, a hint of blue glow lighting up the edges of his silhouette.

"Central Park, but --" Before he could finish his sentence, there was a brief flash of blue that left him blinking. As his vision cleared, Billy was gone, leaving him alone in the corridor.

Well. Didn't that just make him feel like a total asshole.

It was fine, though, he decided as he hurried toward the living room, telling JARVIS to inform the others Billy had left ahead of them and would be there when they got to the park. After this fight they could sit down and talk about whatever it was Billy had been working on, and why it was so important -- not because Teddy questioned that importance, not anymore, but because he wanted to know just why Billy would feel so terrible about a failure. Perhaps there was some way he could help, or at least make it possible for Billy to try again. Anything he could do so Billy wouldn't look like that again.

Most importantly, he would apologize for getting so snappy. Billy had promised to explain everything, and he hadn't trusted him. Sure, he hadn't known it was something as major as it clearly was, but that didn't mean he could just be so terrible. Not to the person he claimed to love more than anything.

After the battle, once New York was safe again to continue its hectic life without any more input from its favorite heroes.

First, he just had to crack a few ice giant skulls.

*

"Just in case anyone cares," Kate announced as Tommy deposited her carefully down on the living room floor, "I am freezing."

"Well, it was kind of unavoidable." Tommy shrugged. "Those things were freaking cold. Which probably kind of comes with the territory when you're, you know, made of ice."

"I didn't say it's not logical, just that it's annoying." Kate sighed, rubbing her arms. "Once we get the debrief over with, I'm going to take a hot shower so long, it empties out the tower's hot water supply."

"Well, if that's your plan, I suppose it would only be prudent of me to join you." Tommy gave her an angelic smile that did not fool her for a moment. "You know, just so I can still have a warm shower as well."

"Mmm, we'll see about that." She let him draw her to the couch, leaning into him as they turned toward the windows to watch the others arrive. It wasn't long until Iron Man showed up, carrying Steve, shortly followed by Thor and a very tired-looking Bruce. By the time Teddy followed, touching down on the landing pad, Tony was already out of his armor and headed for the kitchen for coffee, while Bruce had disappeared to get some much-needed rest.

"What's the matter, Big Green?" Tommy raised his eyebrows as Teddy walked inside, morphing back to his usual shape. "Lost your glass shoe on the way?"

"I was looking for Billy, actually." There was a worried frown on Teddy's face. "Usually he waits for me so we can get home together. Is he here already?"

"Not that I have noticed, no." Kate frowned as well. "JARVIS? Did Billy get home yet?"

"I have no record of return on his part. He has not passed the perimeter security, nor is there any sign of his having moved into one of the areas within the Tower directly."

"Meaning he's probably in his room," Tommy clarified. "It's the one place he can get to directly without being spotted by JARVIS."

"Right. Thanks, JARVIS." Kate stretched, taking her quiver off and setting it down along with her bow. "I'll go get him. He's probably going to be hungry, too."

"I — I should do that." Except Teddy looked exceptionally uncomfortable. The way he only did when he knew something wasn't a good idea. Ah. Fighting, then.

"Nah, it's fine. Besides, I've got his spare key, so if he doesn't hear me knocking or whatever, I can still check up on him." Because she wasn't going to just go out and say he might not want to talk, at least not just based on a suspicion. If Billy continued avoiding Teddy, or whatever was going on here, she would have to kick their asses sooner or later. Which was also why she wanted to speak to Billy alone at first, to see what exactly was going on.

Teddy looked something between relieved and guilty at her offer, which just reinforced her suspicions. Yes, definitely some ass-kicking was in order in the near future if they didn't figure this out by themselves. The two didn't fight often, but when they did, often everyone ended up suffering for it. A morose Teddy was about as beneficial to others' good cheer as a kicked puppy in the rain, and Billy in a personal crisis had a tendency for dramatic that could actually rival Tony's at times.

Yes, she knew she was probably stupid for dating into the family, but then, Tommy still wouldn't admit that he was dating her half the time. Obviously she had some leeway there.

Nobody protested as she left the living room, heading down to the living floors first. Sure, Billy wouldn't be there if JARVIS said he wasn't, but she needed to pick up something from her room.

She had made it very clear to Tommy that, regardless of their relationship status, there were certain things that he had better keep his nose out of if he valued his continued good health and happiness. Her underwear drawer, as it happened, most definitely fell under that clause, and so far he seemed to be respecting these limits. It was a good thing, too, because he did not need to get his hands on her secret weapon.

Kate took the key out of the back of the drawer where she had hidden it, feeling its weight in her hands. It was a deceptively simple thing, and would probably have seemed easy enough for a skilled hand to copy, but the shape wasn't all there was to it. For all that the mechanical part of the lock would have been easy to pick, key or no key, Billy wasn't about to leave his precious chamber so feebly protected. Even if the key had been copied exactly, or one had found a key that was the exact same shape and size, there were only two of them that could actually open the lock. She hadn't understood the exact details of the enchantment even as he explained it to her, but she understood enough to know that the two keys, one of which was in her possession, were the only way to unlock the door without some rather worrying amounts of magical force.

Which was why she could not let it fall into Tommy's hands, no matter how nicely he asked. Or how sneakily he tried to steal it, either way.

With the key in hand, she headed out of her room and toward their hobby floor, as Tony had named it. Which was just typical Tony assholishness, considering his lab was bigger than Tommy's lab and Steve's and Kate's and Teddy's studios and Billy's magic room combined, and yet it somehow stuck. She supposed it was an upside to being a mad scientist; even your bad inventions caught on despite their badness.

And yes, she was aware Tommy was even more of a mad scientist, considering he was basically focusing on earpieces and explosions only with the occasional arrow thrown in, but she was dating him, she was allowed to be less critical of him. Not too much, though, or he'd start thinking he could get away with anything, and that was just not true.

Billy didn't respond as she knocked on his door, which was not exactly a surprise. "Billy?" She called out, knocking again. "Billy, I'm going to come in now." Good thing she had stopped by for the key after all.

The door opened without a sound, which was never going to stop being just a bit creepy. Even the electric doors all around the Tower made more of a noise. She had half expected to see it open into total darkness, but was instead greeted with the soft light of Billy's desktop lamp. Well, that was promising, at least. Billy was too careful to leave it unattended, or so she certainly hoped. Taking the key out of the lock so Tommy couldn't get a chance to steal it, she moved forward.

"Billy?" She stepped into the room, blinking as she glanced around. Despite the soft light, after the bright corridor she needed a moment to adjust to the room. "Are you in here?"

The door closed behind her, and she immediately went to turn around, only to be stopped by the feel of a body pressing against her back. A body that, she knew perfectly well, did not belong to a Stark twin. The height, the build, everything about it was wrong. However, she didn't have time to react before there was something cold and very knife-like pressed against her throat.

"I would be rather obliged if you gave me that key," said a calm voice to her ear. "And quietly, please, so nobody has to get hurt."

Well. Damn.

Suddenly still feeling slightly cold was the least of her problems.

*

Well, wasn't this just the perfect pickle.

Not that he hadn't been in strange situations before, but this definitely was a strong contender for the first place. Waking up in almost complete darkness was bad enough, especially when the "almost" part came from some strange objects giving off their own light in the shadows. At least those objects had given off enough light that he had managed to stumble his way to a desk to turn on the small lamp there, only to find himself in a room with the only way out locked. And to top that off, the walls were all lined with shelves full of books with rather ominous titles along with even more mysterious objects.

Of course, he'd only had a few minutes to take all this in when he had seen the scepter and had everything come crashing in without any warning.

It had taken him a moment to gather himself and get up from the floor, having fallen down in shock, and wasn't that just amateurish, certainly not something he should have been doing at his level of experience. Though then, he supposed all his experience really couldn't have prepared him for the stress of apparently having died and remembering every painful moment of it.

Now that he was here again, though, the memory of his death had to be called into question.

It was all swirling through his head, too many shocks and unbelievable details for him to make sense of it, and all this made even worse by the fact that he hadn't been given the opportunity to take it in alone. He was lucky enough to have recovered somewhat by the time he heard movement at the door, but that was his only saving grace. Now he was not locked in a room alone, but locked in it with a total stranger who he had just kidnapped at knife point.

Phil Coulson was not particularly proud of himself at the moment.

"I would apologize for my behavior, but I think I will hold back on that until I have some more information." He made sure to keep his distance, the key still firmly in his possession. At least he could try to make the most of a bad situation and get some information out of her. That would be more than worth the stress of keeping himself safe from someone of unknown alignment. "Apparently, you expected to find someone called Billy in here."

"Well, this is where I was hoping to find him. Either him or an empty room, mind, it's not like I knew there was a chance someone else was here. This is kind of his private space, after all." She stood in an apparently relaxed stance, but he knew better than to think that. This was not a harmless girl by any means. Her bearing told him she was prepared for a fight if need be, and was only biding her time because he was armed and she was not. If the situation were to change, he might have trouble at hand. And considering he was not exactly feeling his best right now, that would have been quite undesirable.

"I did not expect to find myself here, either. Of course, I don't exactly know what 'here' constitutes, so I may have to take back those words." There really wasn't much he could tell by this room alone. It was old-fashioned to be sure; the only thing electrical was the lamp, apparently operated by a battery as it had no wire of any kind, just a switch. "Care to enlighten me?"

"I might be willing to do an exchange." Her eyes were not relaxed, eyeing him with a look he knew all too well. This was someone evaluating him, trying to figure out if he was threat or prey.

Sadly, given the people he was associated with, that still wasn't enough to tell whether she was hostile or not. Being dangerous didn't necessarily make someone evil or even bad, it just meant he had to be that much more careful when dealing with them.

"One question for another, then? Very well." He moved the knife somewhat lower, though not enough to invite her to attack. "That scepter. What is it doing here?" Because however strange his situation otherwise, that was the thing he had to get clear first of all.

The woman glanced to the direction of his nod, seeing the accursed thing lying on the floor. "I have no idea." Nothing in her expression indicated a lie, though she might just have been trained too well. "I have never seen it before in my life."

"And you have no suggestion as to why this Billy person might have it in his possession?"

"Well, it does look like it might have some magic to it. That would be his area." She shifted her weight, ever so slightly, yet belying the tension in her body. "My turn. How did you get here?"

"I rather wish I could tell you, but I am clueless. I woke up in darkness. Actually I was rather hoping you could enlighten me to the cause."

"So I guess we are at a stalemate as far as information goes, then."

"You are not going to question that?" Because while it was the only explanation he could offer, it also wasn't something most people would have accepted at face value.

"I'm not entirely convinced it's the truth, but I suppose it isn't impossible. I found myself transported here under rather similar circumstances, and magic was involved, so it's not outside the realm of possibility by any means."

"Duly noted." Magic. The mere thought made him feel slightly sick. Magic had already claimed his life once, as far as he could tell. If it had been involved in bringing him back, he was not sure he wanted to know. "What exactly is 'here', then?" Because that would hopefully help him ascertain as to what his actual situation was. Provided she would tell him the truth, of course, but she did not act like someone who was knowingly holding him prisoner. For one thing, she had been far too careless in walking in, so clearly she had not expected his presence, just as she said.

For a moment she was quiet, likely evaluating him, just as he was doing to her. Then, she turned her head to the side, glancing away just for a moment. "This would be part of the Avengers Tower."

Had she punched him then and there, it probably would not have been any more successful at expelling all air from his lungs.

"The what?" Phil managed to croak in a manner he was not exactly proud about. "What's that?" Avengers Tower. Except there were no Avengers, they never had been given the chance to be anything. Just a ragtag bunch of people with special abilities, not cohesive enough to be called a team, hardly visible enough to be heroes.

"How can you not know?" The woman frowned. "I'm fairly sure the name's familiar to anyone with a working TV at any point in the last year at least."

"A year." That... did not sound good. There certainly had not been an Avengers Tower when he had died, and he would have known. Even if it had been Fury's secret project, he would have known, and she did not exactly make it sound like one. "I... what year is it?" Surely he could not have missed that much, could he?

"October, 2013." And, yes, quite like being punched. "What did you expect?"

"I think I'm missing that year and some here." Which was probably not something he should have admitted aloud, but this was quite a lot to take in all at once. If anyone wanted to lecture him for divulging too much information, he would gladly invite them to die and try to hold onto their faculties after that.

"I guess that means I get two questions in a row now, too." She folded her arms over her chest. They were rather impressive arms for a young woman, definitely formed with some hard work. They were just part of all the things about her that radiated danger to his senses. "So. What are you planning to do?"

"Hopefully? Find out how I came to be here, and make my way out safely. I already told you I do not know how I came to be here, though given what I remember of my previous circumstances, the answer would likely not be pleasant anyway."

"You are in no danger from me unless I have to defend myself." She shook her head. "We happen to have a code against harming civilians. Not that you act like one, mind."

"I have learned some hard lessons in my day." This was a good sign, he supposed. Of course, she could well have been lying to win over his trust, but few bad guys bothered to do that, especially toward someone who had just arrived in their midst without warning. Besides, if that were the case, she had to have been lying about the location, and in that case he couldn't trust anything she told him, anyway.

"And who exactly are you, to have learned such lessons? Because while I don't want to brag, I've learned from the best. Not many can surprise me like that." That was true enough, far as he could tell. Her movements almost reminded him of Natasha, though on a more human level of ability.

"Phil Coulson," he said, straightening his back. "Agent of SHIELD." Though far as he knew, job contracts tended to end with death. If there was any agency that had prepared for such contingencies, though, SHIELD would be it.

"No, you're not." The bluntness of her response was rather surprising, as was the sudden hard look in her eyes. It was as though he had made some personal insult against her. "I'll admit you look vaguely familiar, but I happen to know Agent Coulson is dead."

"I'm glad we agree on something at least." He shook his head. The hand holding the knife lay down by his side, now. Whatever the veracity of her claims, he did not feel in danger from this woman. Not now, anyway, but he hoped he would not answer wrong. "Because the last thing I remember doing before I woke up here is dying."

"You'll forgive me if I find that just a bit dubious."

"Oh, certainly. I'm finding it somewhat suspect myself, yet the fact is that I am here, but the last memory I have is of bleeding to death after being stabbed in the back by an evil demi-god."

"This had better not be some kind of a sick joke." She frowned, her shoulders tensing further. "Because if it's a joke or a villain scheme or whatever, you'd better believe Tony will string you up by your ankles so Clint can use you for target practice when he gets home."

Tony. Clint. She was calling them by their first names. And she had said this was Avengers Tower. "I think one name for another is fair, whatever you think of the one I offered." And perhaps he would get some answers that way. Maybe she was an agent as well, assigned to work with the Avengers in his absence. If the Avengers indeed were something that existed.

"Kate Barton," she said, easy and confident, as though it were that simple. "Also known as Hawkeye."

He had fallen down before, when he had found the light only to see the scepter and get assaulted by the memories of cold metal making its way through his chest. This almost made him fall again, and he was only saved from making swift and painful contact with the floor all over again by the feeling of two hands catching his shoulders. She had moved all the way across the room to catch him, he realized, and now she had the upper hand, if he'd ever had it in the first place. If what she said was true, if any of it was true, he likely had forfeited his advantage the moment he allowed her to go free, for all that he had imagined she was kept at bay by his knife.

Hawkeye. She was calling herself Hawkeye, and Barton. If the timeframe she had given was right, there was no way she was a successor, not that Clint would have ever handed over his title while he still lived and breathed. And yet, there was clearly a connection, plain as day now that he knew to look, it was there in her stance and her movements and even the way she looked at him. She was with the Avengers, there were Avengers, Hawkeye was an Avenger but Hawkeye was also this woman and she called herself Barton.

His stomach lurched and he closed his eyes tight, trying to steel him against another wave of nausea. Her hands remained on his shoulders, holding on, and he could vaguely hear her voice, trying to ask him something though he could not tell the words.

Then there was another lurch, more violent than the first one, and everything went white.


	3. Rude Awakenings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Billy is still absent, and now Kate is nowhere to be found, either, with rather worrying clues left in their wake. Teddy may not like the idea of informing Fury, but thanks to him Spider-Man arrives to offer some help, while Tommy is getting desperate to do something, himself. Tony is keeping himself busy in lack of anything to blow up, and somewhere, Billy is alive.

"Kate?" Steve's heavy knock made the door echo, just a bit, carrying down the corridor. "Billy? Are you in there?"

"If they are, they apparently don't feel like acknowledging us." Tony sighed. "You're sure Kate didn't just leave already, JARVIS?"

"Absolutely, Sir. This is the only exit to the room; as I have a clear view of the entire corridor, and there are no windows or secret passages, I can tell you with utmost certainty she did not."

"Then how come we're not getting any response from in there?"

"I'm afraid I cannot offer an explanation, Sir." JARVIS sounded almost guilty. "Without any connected sensors on the inside, all I can tell you is that the only one I have seen passing through the door since the battle is Miss Kate."

"And she hasn't come out." Tony frowned. "Steve? You think you could break the door down?"

"You really think that's necessary?"

"Well, nobody knows where Billy is, Kate went in and locked the door, and now she's not responding either. Either Billy's turned and thought to start his life as a straight guy by bagging his brother's girl, or there's something even more worrying going on. Either way, I'd say it warrants closer inspection."

"I guess you're right." Steve sighed. "I suppose I can try, but I'm not sure if it'll work. From what I have understood, he has put pretty strong wards on the door."

"There's wards on the entire room, walls and ceiling and the floor. I think he asked Strange's help for designing and setting them, the first thing he did with the place. It's both to make sure everything inside is safe from the outside and to protect everyone else from whatever he might be storing inside." Tony rapped his fingers against the door. "Without a key, if it doesn't come down with brute force, we'd need someone with experience in magic."

"Magic? Why are we dealing with sorcery now?"

Tony turned around to see Thor striding down the corridor. "Goldilocks! I thought you were going to go see your dear Lady Jane? Didn't you find her? That's weird, she's usually right there when we get home. JARVIS can help you, I'm sure."

"It was my intention to see her, yes, but the man in the ceiling informed me she is in the middle of some sort of analysis. While I may not be an expert with womenfolk, I thought it would improve my chances of my warm welcome back from battle if I were to allow the fair lady time to finish her work uninterrupted."

"Smart man." Tony ran a hand over his hair. "See, we can't find Billy anywhere in the tower. The only place left is his magic room here, and he's enchanted it against forced intrusions. Kate's got a spare key, but apparently she already went inside."

"And now the door's locked and nobody is answering," Steve finished. "So we were trying to think of a way to check on the situation inside."

"I see." Thor gave them a grave nod. "Do you want me to try? My knowledge on the magical arts is far from his equal, I fear, but Mjölnir itself is quite powerful with the arcane."

"That depends. Can you break the door without sending it splintering all over the room?" Because if either Billy or Kate was inside, the last thing they needed was getting them hurt.

"Aye. Give me a moment to inspect the enchantment, and I will find the force needed to merely allow us entrance."

"Could you?" Steve looked genuinely worried. "Billy didn't sound too good at the end of the battle, and even though he had fought with Teddy, it's just not like him to disappear without a word." He knew better than to worry everyone like that, with what had happened to him before.

"An understandable concern." Thor stepped forward as they made room before the door. "Give me but a moment, and I will have it open for your convenience."

"Thanks." Tony took out his phone, needing something to fiddle with before he let his nerves get the better of him. Everything would be fine, after all. Billy was probably sulking and he and Kate were not responding just so they could complain about their respective stupid blonds in peace. Yes, that was it. That had better be it.

He heard Steve and Thor talking in the background, but something else got his attention. "Hey, JARVIS? What's this new file here?"

"I believe that would be an emergency backup, Sir."

"Emergency backup of what, exactly?" JARVIS would know, after all; nothing made it to Tony's files without going through JARVIS first. All Tony could tell just from the file was that it was an audio format, the title merely a date and a time. Today.

"Of the last transmissions from Master Billy's comm link, Sir." Suddenly, Tony's blood ran cold. "It is an experimental feature Master Tommy implemented recently on this one device. If transmission is cut off from the comm link, further correspondence from his end is recorded and sent over if any form of connection is reinstated."

"And Billy let him do this?"

"I believe the condition to his agreement was that the backup drive be yours, Sir. Their logic as I understand it is that he is the best test subject for the new protocol, as his magic occasionally cuts off transmissions, and if the data is stored in your phone on such occasions, Master Tommy cannot utilize it for any nefarious purposes."

"Can't argue with that logic." He was about to play the file, but a loud crack caught his attention just then. Looking up, he found Thor and Steve prying apart two halves of the door, split right down the middle. "Right. Hold that thought, JARVIS, hopefully we won't need that."

"Billy?" Steve walked into the room, Tony right at his heels. "Kate? Are you here?"

"It's been a while since I've been here, but I'm pretty sure this isn't what the place usually looks like." Tony looked around the room, lit only by a single desktop lamp balanced on top of a rather precarious-looking pile of books. Even in the dim light he could see the remnants of an ornate circle drawn on the floor. "What the hell has he been doing here?"

"There is magic in the air," Thor stated, his voice a low rumble. "Powerful magic, at that. Young William truly did this?"

"That's the theory for now." Tony glanced around. "Okay, neither Kate nor Billy is anywhere in sight, unless they've been practicing invisibility spells lately."

"There's something else in here, though." At Steve's serious tone, Tony spun around, finding him holding the scepter. "You have any idea how he even got this?"

"Yeah." Tony swallowed. "I may have borrowed it from Fury for him." At Steve's suspicious gaze, he rolled his eyes. "Yes, actually borrowed it, with Fury's blessing and everything. Not even I would just steal something like that."

"That is the weapon my brother wielded on his foolish venture, is it not?" Thor frowned. "It seems… different from what I remember, somehow."

"It's not glowing." Steve inspected the blue stone at the end of the scepter with a frown. "Tony? Do you know anything about this?"

"The night light was still on when I gave it to Billy." He looked around the room for some clues, any clues as to where Billy and Kate could be. "Wait. That shelf wasn't empty when I last came here." And Billy was definitely in the habit of accumulating more stuff instead of getting rid of any.

"Oh?" Steve looked concerned. "What was on it, then?"

Tony closed his eyes, trying to focus. He'd only paid fleeting attention, but there had been something… "A dagger." He opened his eyes to find both Steve and Thor staring at him. "I'm pretty sure it was a dagger of some sort. I think Billy used it for magic practice?"

"So that is at least one person and one item missing from the room nobody left through the door," Steve summed up. "And we still don't even know if Billy actually came here after we lost contact with him."

"Right!" Tony snapped his fingers. "JARVIS, play that file for us? It might give us some clues."

"Immediately, Sir."

There was nothing at first, just the sound of harsh breathing. A pained gasp broke out, and Tony saw Steve flinch. It was a close thing he didn't, too, as Billy's voice came in, clearly in pain. "Damn, that hurt… Anyone near me? I think I could use some help."

"He called for help, yet none heard his plea." Thor's voice was grave. "Less would drive a man to despair."

"Hush." Tony frowned. "He's not done."

"Anyone? This really hurts. Damn, did I fry this stupid thing again? Tommy's never going to let me hear the end of it." There was some shuffling, and a crackle of electricity and magic. "Guess I'll go find them… fuck!" The curse was sudden and sharp enough to make Tony jump. "Can't… can't move…"

Tony and Steve shared a look. "It doesn't seem he came home," Steve said, his voice barely a whisper.

"No, it doesn't." Tony stared at his phone. "But he hasn't been found anywhere else, either."

There was more shuffling and another gasp of pain. Then, one word cut through Tony like a blade, leaving him shivering in its wake.

"Grandfather?"

*

Tony was calling Fury.

That in itself would have been enough to set Teddy on edge. Fury being on the phone -- or the computer, as the case often was -- rarely promised anything good. Sure, the Director hadn't turned out to be quite as bad as they had feared at first, but their dealings with him were still tentative at best. Kate seemed to do fairly well at handling him, and Billy was getting over the worst of his prejudices while Tommy just refused to bow to any form of authority, but Teddy still had a problem with not getting nervous whenever Fury got involved. Of course, it didn't exactly help that Fury only ever got involved when things were going badly.

"Stark." Fury frowned out of the computer display. "What's going on here? I don't have time for your shit. Were the giants taken care of or not?"

"The giants are still just as gone as when Steve gave you his post-mission report." Tony was swishing around a splash of Scotch in his glass, apparently more as a comfort thing than for drinking, as he hadn't touched it for a while. Teddy supposed he didn't want to get too drunk while dealing with all this. "However, it seems another problem has arisen that I thought you might like to hear about."

"Can't tell you either way until you tell me what it is." Fury's face showed no change whatsoever. "Let's hear it, then."

"Billy never got home from the mission." Well, that at least earned them a twitch of Fury's face. "And when Kate went looking for him, she disappeared into thin air as well."

"So what you mean to tell me is that two of your baby heroes have gone MIA within the last hour."

Tony made a face. "They're not babies," he pointed out, which Teddy internally thanked him for. "And technically Kate's not MIA, since she got home all right. Which, well, I'm not sure if it makes this better or worse that she disappeared from right under our noses, but she cleared the action part without trouble."

"Worse. Definitely worse, since that means there's trouble both in the field and back at home." Fury sighed, the kind of exasperated sound Steve sometimes made when Tony was being especially frustrating, except nothing quite as familiar and comforting. "And you have no idea what's going on?"

"We've got a recording from Billy's comm link that suggests he was hurt," Tony said. No mention of Magneto, then. Teddy didn't exactly blame him. "While Kate was apparently spirited away from Billy's magic room. Thor managed to tell us there had been some pretty impressive magic done in there, but we're going to need someone more qualified to comment further on that."

"Right." Fury's eyebrows rose. "And that object you asked me to get for your baby mage?"

"Still there, still in one piece. None of us is exactly tempted to touch it." Tony shook his head. "You're welcome to have it back once we've made sure it hasn't sucked her in or whatever."

"So very gracious of you." Fury snorted. "What else are you going to do?"

"What do you think? Check for clues, see if the science lady has any sort of magical reading on this, keep looking behind every corner. We were also kind of hoping you could make sure neither of them has managed to appear on the helicarrier, and maybe ask Spidey's team if they noticed anything during the battle or after it. I don't exactly have their numbers on speed dial."

"I'll see what I can do." Fury actually looked serious about that, for which Teddy was rather grateful. "In the meantime, you inform me if you find out anything else. I'd damn well better be informed if there's going to be an epidemic of assets disappearing on me."

"I'll keep you posted when I have the time." Tony's expression hardened. "You may be thinking of your assets. I'm short a son and a sort-of daughter-in-law, here."

"We both know you'd never even met either of them two years ago."

"And? I took responsibility for them, and I'm damn well going to do something about that, so what if it's not exactly Stark family tradition to do so." Tony finally took a small sip of his drink. "I know, I know, it's just atrocious that I'm not trying harder for the Shittiest Father of the Year award, but hey, what can you do? I always did like defying expectations."

"Yeah, yeah. Far it be from me to get in the way of you playing house. It's all the better for me if you're being more manageable." With that, Fury cut off the call without as much as saying goodbye. Teddy couldn't exactly bring himself to care.

"Just a bunch of puppies and sunshine, isn't our Director?" Tony made a face before finishing the rest of his drink. "Oh well, at least he'll be doing something. We'll just have to find some way to stay busy in the meantime."

"I'll think of something to occupy myself with." Even if right now he just wanted to lock himself up somewhere and cry. Or maybe scream. Or punch something.

"You do that." Tony seemed to hesitate, then looked at him from the corner of his eye. "We'll find them, you know. They're both going to be home soon enough."

"Not soon enough." Nothing would be soon enough when they were gone. "But I'll settle for soon."

"Good boy." Tony reached for the bottle. "Care for a drink? I know technically you'd need Bruce's permission and shit like that, but I'm not exactly going to get on your case for underage drinking, that'd blow any hypocrisy meter this side of Alaska. You rather look like you could use one."

Teddy actually managed a chuckle, though it was a somewhat broken one. "No, thanks. You know it wouldn't really affect me either way." Most of the time he was quite happy for his body's healing abilities. At times like this, he wasn't entirely sure it was all for the best.

"Whatever you say." Tony poured himself another glass, fuller this time instead of the little comfort swig of before. "You change your mind, you know where to find me. Or the bottle."

"Right. Thanks." At least he knew where to find someone in this family.

It wasn't good enough, but it was all he had right now, so it would have to do.

*

"Tony, stop that." Steve steeled his jaw. "You're not going to find out anything new by playing it over and over."

"I might," Tony protested. "It's valuable data. Hell, it's the last info we have on Billy before things went pear-shaped. There must be something more here, some clues we are missing."

"If there was something, wouldn't JARVIS have noticed it by now?" In Steve's opinion it told them quite enough. Billy had been hurt, and then he had noticed someone he had called grandfather. It couldn't have been just this world's version of his old family, wandering about by happenstance; Tony had checked the databases as soon as they got over their worst shock, and the only one of the Kaplan grandfathers still alive did not live in New York. Never mind that Billy didn't call him grandfather, never had, as attested by Teddy. Which really left only one possibility.

In his pain Billy had seen, our thought he saw, someone else he might have called by that name. And Steve wasn't very inclined to believe that Howard had decided to visit his son from beyond the grave.

"I can't just sit and do nothing, though." Nevertheless, Tony took the headphones off, setting them aside and stepping away from the computer console. It was almost delightfully old-fashioned, seeing an actual console in the living room instead of the holographic displays and immaterial keyboards. It had been installed for Thor's benefit, as he had found the sensation of essentially touching air somewhat disconcerting, and his discomfort tended to manifest itself in small electric sparks that did not bode well with Tony's delicate machinery.

Steve recalled Tony huffing in indignation about how unlikely it was that this would be the way the computers in his house suffered, given all the people with superhuman strength prancing around, though they all knew he had just been slightly annoyed at the idea of what he saw as downgrading his equipment. Steve certainly preferred his own oh-so-old-fashioned laptop, not because he disliked the tablets, but because he likewise enjoyed the feeling of actually manipulating something. However, for all that Tony's little drama usually brought a smile to his lips even at a memory, right now it failed to amuse him.

"Sir?" JARVIS cut in just then. "Sir, there's a visitor at the window."

"What?" Tony turned to look, seeing someone standing outside the living room windows. Well, rather standing on them. Spider-Man was crouched outside, glued to the glass. "Right. Let him in."

"Very well, Sir." JARVIS dutifully slid open the window that served as a door to the balcony, and the young hero stepped in. "Good evening, Master Peter."

"Uh, hi, JARVIS." Spider-Man glanced around, getting up on two feet, mercifully standing on the floor for now. "Right. Cap, Tony. Just who I was hoping to see."

"Peter." Peter Parker. Only slightly younger than the twins, far too young to be doing all this in Steve's opinion, but that was something he had to struggle with on his own. Peter certainly wasn't just a boy, anymore, closer to a man, and however much Steve might have disliked the idea of having children fight their battles he had to admit Peter was old enough to be making his own decisions. And regardless of his opinion, sometimes they did need Peter and his team to handle the threats that seemed to be rising up at an increasing frequency. He didn't have to like it, just live with it, and do his best to make sure that after every mission Peter could still get back to his aunt. "What brings you here?"

"Yeah, I've got to second that." Tony sighed, running a hand over his face. "Not to say you're not welcome or what the fucking ever, but we're kind of in the middle of something here. You know, with missing teammates and everything."

"Yeah, yeah, I got the memo. It's kind of why I'm here." Peter bounced across the room, there was no other way to describe the way he rushed closer. "You see, I think I might have some data for you. I came over as soon as I noticed these." He was practically vibrating with nervous energy. "You got an USB cable anywhere nearby? I think you'd like to see these in full detail."

"Peter?" Steve frowned, walking closer. "What's this about?"

"You know I've got cameras stuck around whenever I can, right? So I can get some shots of Spider-Man and maybe sell them somewhere. Got to earn my pocket money somehow and all that." Peter shook his head, drawing out a small digital camera from somewhere. Steve wasn't entirely sure he wanted to consider just where he had been hiding the camera in his skintight costume. "Well, I just collected my cameras from the park, the ones that survived the fight anyway, and was looking through the pictures."

"Oh?" Tony hurried closer, pulling out a USB cord from somewhere and attaching it to the closest computer console. Steve was starting to believe ultradimensional pockets was a common feature of science people. "Something interesting come up?"

"Well, I wouldn't have thought so, not usually. Without the alarm about Billy going missing, I probably wouldn't have thought twice about them, at least not right away. But with that information, a couple of these pictures suddenly seem quite different."

"Right." Tony frowned, tapping a few keys on the console as Peter connected his camera to it, bringing up a large wall display before he stepped aside. "Show us."

"Right." Peter stepped up to the keyboard, his fingers flying over the keys. A photograph appeared on the display, stretched to the entire wall. It was an area of the park, ravaged by huge chunks of ice. In the middle of it all stood a dark figure in a red cape. Billy.

"He's holding his side," Steve pointed out with a frown. "It must have been hurt somehow."

"Sure seems like it." Peter sighed. "The camera didn't capture his injury. He dropped down pretty hard on the ground, and he does seem tired, but there's nothing obviously wrong if you're not looking for it."

"Good thing you were alerted, too, then." It was lining up with the recording. "He was saying that something hurt. I guess we can assume he got attacked, retaliated while in the air, and then fell down from the pain."

"Sounds pretty likely." Peter clicked for the next picture. Billy seemed to be faltering, half collapsing down to the ground. "The cameras just snap at regular intervals, so there's bits missing. Lucky for us or not, he's not moving much."

"So it seems." Steve swallowed. "And then?"

"Then, this happens." The next picture, Billy was looking at someone just out of shot, a shocked look on his face, not that Steve could tell for sure with the distance. "Obviously he's just seen someone over there."

"And you wouldn't happen to have a picture of that person?" Tony's frown was deep, his eyes locked on the picture.

"As a matter of fact, yes, I do. Just to warn you, though, that's going to be the last picture."

"Oh? Did you run out of space?" See, Tony, he did know something about how these cameras worked.

"Nah, I actually ran out of camera." Peter made a face. "I can only assume there was an electric surge, which, yeah, happens sometimes around Billy when he's agitated, from what I've heard. Or a magical one, I'm not sure there's much of a difference with the system. This actually isn't the camera that took the pictures; I had to transfer the memory card from the original, since it was basically fried."

"Ouch." Tony made a face. "Yeah, electricity is a surprisingly bad match with electronics." He made an impatient motion with his hand. "So, the culprit?"

"Right, that." Peter made another click. Now the other person had entered the picture. A tall, strongly built man, towering over Billy's pained form, his white hair shining in the sunlight. They couldn't see his clothes, not with the way his purple cape fell down around him, but his silhouette was certainly familiar.

"You know, it never ceases to amaze me what you can get away with wearing in New York City," Tony murmured, yet despite his light words his hands were clenched tight enough that his knuckles turned white. "Why, you could just walk an international terrorist in full costume right in the middle of Manhattan and nobody would bat an eye."

"To be fair, though, people were probably more concerned with the ice giants." Steve reached out a hand to Tony's shoulder, giving it a small squeeze. "We'll have to ask the kids to take a look at this. I mean, Teddy and Tommy. They should be able to confirm it properly."

"As though there's any real doubt." Tony gritted his teeth. "Magneto. Where does he get off kidnapping my son?"

"Actually, I obviously don't have proof, but it might be for the best in the short term." Peter shifted a bit, looking uncomfortable. "With the camera fried after this, I'm not sure what happened when, but the place where I salvaged this from was a total wreck. The spot where Billy's standing here?" He pointed toward the picture. "More like a crater right now. With the condition he seems to be in, if nobody had gotten to him before that attack came, I'm not sure he could have avoided or deflected it."

"But now, he's missing." Steve willed his hand to stay mostly relaxed, not wanting to dig his fingers into Tony's shoulder. "This lines up with the recording perfectly."

"Sadly, yeah." Tony frowned at the picture for another moment, then shook himself like a dog emerging from water. "Right. Right! JARVIS, get all the data you can from these pictures, time tags, anything. Peter, if there's any way you could get the damaged camera here as well, that might help us figure out what happened to it. No hurry about that, but --"

Peter interrupted Tony by pulling out another camera from places best left outside even imagination and placing it on the table. "Thought you might want it," he said. "Not sure if there's anything you can find out from it, but I figured you'd at least want to try."

"Great! Great, I'll at least try to see what fried it. I've certainly got enough samples of electronics ruined by both magic and electric surges, what with Billy and Thor both living under my roof."

"Not that it matters much in the short term," Steve sighed. "But it might help us put the puzzle pieces together later."

"Exactly. So, kid." Tony turned to look at Peter. "How much do you want for the exclusive rights to those photos?"

"What?" Peter looked startled. "That's not -- I didn't bring them here for that! I wouldn't sell them to someone else no matter what!"

"I'm not saying you would," Tony replied. "However, especially the last couple of photos might get you a nice payday if you found the right buyer. I don't think it's fair that you'd be out that money just because you're actually a decent kid who wouldn't benefit from your friend's misfortune."

"I wouldn't feel right, doing that," Peter replied. "Billy is a friend. I want to do what I can to help."

"Yeah, yeah, and virtue's its own reward, but sometimes I feel like doing nice things to nice people. But I get it, you don't want money, have to do the good things just for being good and all that."

Peter frowned. Steve really shouldn't have been able to tell through his costume, but the mask was surprisingly expressive. "It's not a joke."

"I know it's not. I'm being very serious, though." Tony shook his head. "Tell you what, I'll make you a deal. No direct money involved. Will you hear me out at least?"

Peter still frowned, but gave a small nod. "I'm listening."

"I want to buy you a new camera. No, all new cameras. Better specs, more memory. Maybe a couple of video cameras, too, for better data capture. And if any of them get smashed or fried again, I'll replace them for you, just say the word."

Peter raised his eyebrows. "And where exactly is the deal part of this offer?"

"Coming to that. Geez, people usually aren't so pushy about giving something back. Well, except Steve. How the hell do I keep surrounding myself with such goody-goodies?" Tony tsked. "Your part of the deal, my young friend, is exactly what you've done here. If something else goes wrong on a mission, or we need to figure out what exactly happened, or maybe need some kind of proof, we'll be counting on you to have captured that for us. Well, for the missions you're taking part in, obviously, but then that's when you'll be mostly using those cameras, so it still seems like a fair trade to me. How about it?"

Peter frowned. "I still wouldn't be able to guarantee that I have anything," he pointed out. "If the fight moves from what I expect, or if something's just at a bad angle, I can't capture it since I set everything up beforehand. And I don't get the chance to put the cameras in place a lot of the time, so I could have a fat lot of nothing."

"Yeah, well, obviously at those times you're not getting the full benefit of the equipment, either." Tony shook his head. "I'm not expecting you to capture every second of everything or anything. Just, if something happens, and you have some data on it, you give it to us. Not that I don't think you would do it anyway, but this way, you don't have to feel like you're doing it for free, and we can reward you a little."

Peter stayed tense for a moment, but then his shoulders sagged just a bit. "There's no way to talk you out of this, is there?"

Tony's face took on a small, slightly tense grin. "Out of buying people stuff? Never. Just ask Steve, I'm terrible about it, I'm always buying people stuff, it's my way of showing I might give a shit. You should be grateful I haven't upgraded all your gear just because."

"Careful with what you say around the poor student. It's becoming increasingly hard to stick to my honor and dignity, and I'd really rather keep those intact." Peter sighed. "Fine. I'll suffer the terrible fate of having to take your cameras."

"Excellent. If you've got any preferences, just let me know. Or let JARVIS know, he'll probably understand it better. I really don't know much about this stuff past what I've used for the suit, and that's all really just for what displays best on the HUD rather than recording much of anything."

"Duly noted." Peter nodded slowly. "But, uh, I really got to go now. My aunt's expecting me back for dinner, and this is already getting a bit late. But I'll give you a call if I find out anything else, okay?"

"Thank you." Steve patted the boy's shoulder. "Really, thank you. Should we keep you posted?"

"Ah, if it's not too much trouble. I mean, I am pretty worried. Though I suppose Danny's got it worse. He and Billy really get along well."

"Ah, right, his fellow student of the arcane arts." Tony's eyes took on the kind of glint that said he had an idea. "Say. Your friend wouldn't happen to have Dr. Strange's cell phone number or anything, would he?"

"Well, you know, I really don't think Strange's the kind of guy who'd go for cell phones." Peter stretched a bit. "But yeah, I can ask Danny if he can get in touch with him. I mean, if there is any way that's faster than walking up to his front door and knocking, Danny would probably know."

"That would be much appreciated." Now, Steve actually managed a small smile. "Maybe he can help us figure out what happened with Kate."

"I'll get back to you ASAP when I hear back from him." And with that, Peter leaped across the room, then right out of the window. Steve almost reached for him, more by reflex than anything, though he knew that to be useless. Peter would be swinging away by now, quite safe with his strange inventions. Just like Tony was every time he put on the suit and headed for the skies.

"Well." Tony sighed, glancing back at the picture still reflected on the wall. "I guess I'd better get to work on what little data we have. Synchronize these with the recording, for one thing. Not sure if that'll reveal anything new, but at least it'll give us a more complete picture."

"Right." Steve swallowed. "I'll -- I'll get Tommy and Teddy here, to do the recognition. Then we can start figuring out the ways we could get more information."

"I'll check with Jane. It's pretty obvious Kate's disappearance had something to do with magic, so if we have any luck, her devices might have a reading on it." Tony, Steve noticed, looked awfully tense. Not that he could exactly blame him.

"Do that. And I'm sure JARVIS will keep us each posted on everyone's progress."

"Of course he will. JARVIS? Also let us know if there's any word from outside, particularly if it concerns Dr. Strange."

"Will do, Sir." Steve could have sworn even JARVIS sounded somewhat concerned, though he wasn't entirely certain it was possible for an AI to be concerned. Though then, if any AI was capable of it, it would have been JARVIS.

"We'll find them, Tony," Steve murmured, not even entirely sure if Tony could hear his whisper, but he needed the words as badly as Tony did. "We'll find them, and they will be fine."

"They'd better," Tony replied, his voice just as quiet. "Because otherwise I'll have to ground them both for the rest of their lives, and that would be just embarrassing, considering they're both adults and I can't actually do that." Despite the attempt at a joke, neither of them managed even a smile.

Not while they looked at the pained, hunched figure of Billy in the photograph.

*

"That's him." Tommy's eyes were so sharp, Tony almost expected them to burn holes right through the display. "I'm sure of it. He stands just like that."

"I rather figured that was the case." Tony sighed. "How that's true, though, I don't have the faintest idea. He's awfully spry for someone who was around in the second world war and wasn't to our knowledge privy to the secrets of being a successful capsicle."

"Yeah, it was the same in our world, too. I'm pretty sure Billy could give you some kind of an explanation involving various mutations and energy levels and shit like that, but I never had much of patience for that stuff. I think we can probably assume he's been healed by a mutant healer who slowed the whole aging thing or something, but either that's Magneto or the twin trend goes one generation up in this world."

"So it's like we feared." Steve frowned at the display. "Not that it didn't already seem likely when Billy called for his grandfather on the recording."

"Yeah, he does stupid shit like that sometimes." Tommy frowned. "Is there anything we can do?"

"Actually, there is something we were hoping you could do." Tony picked up a print-out he had made earlier. "You mentioned you were going to check some of Billy's favorite locations, right?"

"Yeah. I figured it might be worth a shot. If he 'ported himself out of there, it would probably have taken him somewhere at least somewhat significant." Tommy shrugged. "Also, I thought I'd stop by and ask the professor to keep an eye out for him. Or a thought out for him, whatever. Like hell do I know how that shit works."

"That might actually not be a bad idea." Tony nodded. "Anyway, while you're at it, I thought you might want the locations of some other places that might be worth checking."

"Oh?" Tommy definitely looked interested. Well, more like he was about to run out of the nearest door right this second, which probably wasn't that far from the truth, knowing him. "Gimme."

"Now, I want you to listen to me before you run off." As Tommy made grabby hands, Tony kept the list out of his reach. "I mean it, Tommy. Let me finish before you go off, because this is kind of important sometimes."

"Right." Tommy lifted his eyebrows in a manner Tony knew to be rather reminiscent of himself. "I'm listening."

Tony highly doubted that, but it was the best he was going to get. "First off, this list has all of the known locations that have been significant to Magneto in the past. That's including his old headquarters, the one or two places we know he's lived at, everything. Chances are you're not going to find anything of note from any of these, but they're on the list anyway because we don't have anything else to go on."

"Right, got it." Tommy nodded. "Not going to freak out even if Billy's not there. What else?"

"The second part of the list has other locations." Tony paused. "For now, until we get some word from Strange to confirm or refute this, we're going to be working based on the assumption that Kate's disappearance has to do with whatever Billy was doing with the scepter, or else with the scepter itself. Fury's already doing a sweep of the Helicarrier, and obviously we've already checked the Tower, but I've listed all the other places where we know Loki did something significant with his little disco stick. Again, there's a good chance it won't turn out anything useful, but we'd probably best check those anyway."

"Is that going to be all right?" Steve frowned. "I mean, I know you're fast, Tommy, but some of those places aren't exactly around the corner. Hell, the two of us first encountered Loki in Germany."

"Please. I can run off there no problem, probably faster than Billy could 'port over. I'll have them all checked out for you in a flash." Now Tony finally gave the list to the boy, who then disappeared instantly, leaving them looking at the spot where he had stood just moments before.

"I'm not even sure what I should wish for," Tony murmured. "Of course, some clues would be great, but if he finds any trouble I don't think for a second that he'd bother to actually get some reinforcements before rushing right in."

"He has to do something, though," Steve pointed out, setting a hand on Tony's arm. "We all do."

"Right you are." Tony sighed. "Doesn't mean I have to particularly like it. I mean, we've already got two juniors missing. I'd really rather not think about all the possible reasons Tommy might not get back from his little leisurely stroll around the world."

And with that thought, he really should have been getting back to work.

No time for worrying when there was data to get through.

*

"Tony?" Steve walked into the lab, somewhat disconcerted to find it quiet. Tony rarely worked in silence; even when he had others present who did not appreciate his music, it was still on in the background, or he would be working with metal which made its own noises. Right now, though, there was no music, no hammering or welding or burning, just the silent hum of computers and the soft sounds that accompanied the effects on the holographic display.

"Steve." Tony didn't look over from the large display he was standing in front of, adjusting some minute details. "Any news?"

"Not much, I'm afraid. Tommy still isn't back, and Teddy said he can't find any clues as to Billy's big project in their room. Also, he checked and both of their cell phones are still here; they apparently didn't take them along on the mission."

"Of course not. That would have been far too easy." Tony sighed. "What do they have with them, then?"

"Billy, far as we know, had nothing but his costume. Kate should have her emergency kit, which includes a credit card."

"Great. I'll have JARVIS looking for any signs of use of that." Even though they both knew that was far more long-term a solution than they would have liked. "Anything else?"

"We had JARVIS tighten the security at the Tower. Fury called back to tell us he has informed Spider-Man's team of the situation, though we knew that already. For now they're not out looking, but they're all aware they should let us know if they find any clues. SHIELD agents are going through the park at the moment to see if there's any traces."

"Great." Tony frowned at his display, then reached for the coffee cup he had set to the side, taking a sip and setting it back down. "Peter sent a message some time ago. He'd gotten in touch with his friend, who is currently working on getting hold of Strange."

"Good. That's... that's good." If anyone could tell them what exactly had happened in Billy's room, it was his teacher. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm compiling data." Tony sighed. "I took Peter's pictures and the recording from Billy's comm link, and tried to synchronize them as well as possible. There's no accurate time stamp on the recording since, well, it was made because part of the device got fried, but the pictures do tell me when they were made, and the armor tells me when exactly Billy dropped off the line, so those combined give me a pretty accurate picture of the events."

"Right." Steve walked closer. The image on the display was changing slowly. "And this? Is this everyone's locations?" He pointed at the large grid with several moving dots on it.

"Yeah. I took the data from the armor and Peter's other pictures, put in all the times and places when I could find someone at a specific spot, and then extrapolated over the gaps in between. I'm not sure if it's significant at all, but at least it should help us figure out exactly when and where Billy dropped offline."

"Seems good enough a plan to me." Steve shook his head. So much movement, but only one little dot mattered. "And do we have any idea how they exited the park?"

"Well, I'm already pretty sure Billy didn't teleport them out. Jane's still running her data, but she was monitoring the park at the time because of the giants, and did not notice any more peaks after Billy arrived at the scene. Which of course is not a guarantee, but that combined with his condition makes me fairly certain he probably did not do that."

"So whatever happened, he didn't initiate it." And that was... not good. Not good at all. "Anything on Kate?"

"Nothing. JARVIS noticed nobody leaving the room, nor any suspicious activity in the rooms on either side, above, or below. Without eyes and ears inside, that's the best we can do right now. As I said, Jane's looking at her data, but because of the wards she might not have accurate readings of anything that happens inside the room. Until Strange shows up, we probably won't find out much."

"Right." And that was nothing short of terrifying. To think that someone in their team could have disappeared so easily from their home did not help Steve's already worried state of mind. "I made sure everyone takes their cell phones everywhere. Hopefully we won't lose touch with anyone else, but if that happens, we should be able to find them."

"Right, except if their phones get fried, too. Remember, we know Billy's device only got back online for a short moment before going off again, and we don't know if it was him that did the second burst."

"It's the best we can do right now, though. That, and making sure nobody goes out of JARVIS's sight alone." Steve sighed. "The last thing we need is anyone else disappearing."

"Fair enough." Tony reached for his cup of coffee, then frowned as he found it already empty. "Damn. I didn't even notice."

"I can get you some more." Steve collected the cup, letting his fingers brush against Tony's hand and linger there for a moment. "Actually, how about getting something to eat? Have you actually eaten anything since breakfast?"

"I did have half a sandwich after the mission, but that's all. I was waiting for post-mission takeout and then I got kind of distracted from that."

"Which is understandable enough." And it was definitely a sign of progress, Steve decided, that Tony would actually admit to not having eaten enough. "How about I get everyone something to eat? We can then get together to compare results, such as they are."

"Eh, not like we can do much else until Strange gets here." Tony rubbed his forehead. "Besides, I think we need to regroup anyway. If I know this team at all, half of us are panicking and the other half is tinkering with stuff that won't actually make much of a difference."

"Ah. I wasn't going to say anything, but..."

"Yeah, yeah. See, I actually admit I'm part of the team. And yes, I am aware this won't bring any meaningful results right now. Still, it's good to have so we can compare it against any other data we might get."

"Right. Do you want to finish up here, or come with me to order the food and get everything ready?"

"I guess I'm as done here as I can be right now." Tony tapped a few more icons, saving his work. "I hate feeling like this."

"Feeling like what?" As though he didn't know.

"You know. Useless." Tony sighed again. "That, and guilty. The part of my brain that isn't running through this sequence over and over is trying to think of feasible ways I could have put JARVIS into Billy's room so we could monitor it."

"Don't blame yourself, Tony." Steve stepped closer to touch his shoulder. "I remember you explaining it would be no use installing JARVIS there, because the next magic burst would fry the circuits anyway. So if anything happened in there, there wouldn't be a record of it anyway."

"If anything happened in there, it was tied to the scepter," Tony pointed out with a wry tone. "Which I got for him against my better judgment. So, actually, if anyone is to blame for Kate's disappearance, chances are it's me."

"You had your reasons." Which Steve still didn't know, mind, but he was sure he would find out eventually. "And Billy is a grown man. He makes his own decisions, regardless of how we might feel about those decisions."

"I'm pretty sure it's my fatherly duty to feel guilty if my actions may have put him or others in danger. Not that I'd know for sure, I'm not exactly an expert on this stuff after all, but that is the impression I've been given by outside sources."

"That's right, of course. But it doesn't mean you are at fault." Steve paused. "We should probably talk to the boys some more. Apparently there was some kind of an argument going on before the mission."

"So chances are I'm at least not alone in my guilt-ridden misery. Yay, life is perfect." Tony twisted his neck this way and that, trying to work out the kinks as he started walking out of the lab. "JARVIS? I'm sure you probably already have, but make sure all my scheduled meetings and other stuff are postponed indefinitely. Finding the kids takes top priority."

"Already done, Sir. I have also taken the liberty of adjusting the schedules of the rest of the team," JARVIS replied smoothly. "I might also remind you that Miss Pott's meeting will come to an end soon."

"Oh, great." Tony's jaw tightened. "Explaining to Pepper that I managed to misplace one of my sons. That's going to be just hilarious."

"I can take care of that." It was the least Steve could do in an effort to keep Tony from running himself ragged. "For now, though, let's go get coffee and food ready for everyone. I've got a feeling there's a lot of talking to be done once we can get the team to stop running about."

"Always so damn sensible, I see. Fine, you want to be the bearer of bad news, I'm not going to stop you. Just don't say I forced you into it." Tony leaned closer to Steve, just a little, but enough to reveal some of the tiredness he was hiding underneath that careful facade. "First, coffee, then food. Then data updates with the team and facing the terror of Pepper. Let's do this thing."

"Let's." And, just because he could, Steve leaned close enough to press a small kiss to the side of Tony's face. The hint of a stubble scratched his lips, but he didn't care. He needed to remind himself that Tony, at least, was still within reach.

At the moment it seemed like the only comfort he had.

*

So that had been a fat shitload of nothing.

Not that he had really expected much. Tony had been very clear in his point that he shouldn't hope for results, and he wasn't masochistic enough to ignore such warnings. Even so, it didn't mean he wasn't going to feel cranky as he finally made it back to the Tower, ignoring the maddeningly slow elevator ride in favor of just running right up along the wall. Tony would probably get on his case for leaving footprints on the windows, but right now, he couldn't care less.

Nothing. Absolutely nothing about either Billy or Kate.

Oh, he had gotten something out of it, at least. Professor had seemed quite startled to hear that Billy had apparently met Magneto, and had promised to try and make contact with either of them, but he hadn't been able to promise much success. He hadn't been able to track Magneto down during all these years, after all, and not only would Magneto probably have his secret lair shielded against telepaths and whatnot, Billy's magic apparently messed with such things sometimes, too. Because obviously the stupid chaos magic hadn't given them enough trouble already. And Kate was even more difficult to track because he didn't know her thought patterns well enough and, being human, she didn't really stand out from the general population in any significant way.

Fuck it all anyway.

He just wanted his brother and girlfriend home. That shouldn't have been so much to ask. Hell, he was even willing to admit Kate was his girlfriend, see he said it, there, now give them back, stupid world. Except just saying that to himself wasn't enough to bring Kate back to his arms, where she damn well belonged, because obviously the world was utterly unfair and unconcerned with things such as how everything should have been.

Too bad "I wish" wasn't enough for him to set things right.

Steve was in the living room, unsurprisingly, together with a rather concerned-looking Bruce. Jane was standing there with them, apparently busy explaining something. Well, that at least should be relevant.

"Tommy." Bruce looked up as he rushed in, not even seeming too surprised that he had chosen to enter from outside the penthouse. "Anything?"

"Nothing." And damn, that almost hurt to say aloud. "I did stop by the school. The Professor said he'd look out for any signs of them in the brainsphere or whatever it is, but he's not too hopeful, especially if Magneto's involved."

Steve gave a grim nod. "Well, at least they know. It can't hurt to have some more eyes out there."

"The rest of the spots were bust. Didn't find either of them, didn't find Magneto or any traces of magic, not even signs of anyone being there recently in any of the secret lairs and whatnot." And in New Mexico, all he had found were the remains of where the base had collapsed in on itself. Anything salvageable had been removed ages ago, leaving most of the base crushed under tons and tons of ground.

He was not going to believe Kate was under there. He was not.

"Well, we've had slightly more luck than that." Jane shifted her papers. "I went over the readings from my machines, and it seems Tony's suspicions were right. There were two magical surges in Billy's room today, and one of them happened not too long after JARVIS saw Kate go into his room. So it seems she was indeed teleported out of there for one reason or another."

"Wait, two?" Tommy frowned. "So Billy did go back there after the battle?"

"According to my readings, no." Jane gave him an almost apologetic look, and damn, he didn't need to get that look from anyone. "From the time Billy was last seen during the battle, there was no sign of significant magic use within the Tower until Kate's disappearance. Besides, the burst after her going into the room was rather short but violent. The earlier one was quite different."

"Different? How so?"

"Well, it really is quite easy." Jane flipped through her papers until she found a particular one, taking it out and showing it to all three of them. It bore a rather colorful graph printed across the whole page. "This is the profile of energy readings within the Tower for today. Well, energy readings that are consistent with what we call magic, anyway. There's the constant background radiation, which dropped a bit when Thor and then Billy left the building, but then there's the peaks. This one," she pointed at one sharp rise on the graph, "was after Kate went in. This one," another, this time an even higher peak that fell into a valley, only to rise steadily to another peak, "happened before that."

"What does that mean, though?" Steve frowned. Yay, Tommy wasn't asking all the questions. "I mean, obviously you can only say that magic was used, but do you have any theories?"

"Well, all I really have to go with are a couple of points of data." Jane shook her head. "This first rise happened shortly before we got word of the ice giants. Then it dropped down almost to background noise levels, except it started rising again and reached the second peak while you were all out in Central Park."

"Teddy mentioned something about Billy saying he failed," Bruce murmured. "He didn't know what Billy was doing, but when he went to get him for the battle, Billy said he had failed."

"Except maybe he didn't." That had to be it. He didn't like it, but at least it would make some amount of sense. "Maybe Billy didn't fail. Maybe whatever he was doing just took a while to get completed, and his result was waiting in his room, except then it was Kate instead of Billy who went there and somehow the residual magic zapped her somewhere away."

"That would seem like a working theory." Bruce frowned at the graph. "So, from what I understand, the teleportation magic is quite similar to when the Bifrost is used."

"There are similarities, yes." Jane nodded. "I got my machines to track it first, and then expanded from that to other uses of strong magic. I can say that this second burst was definitely teleportation, so I don't think you have to worry about Kate being disintegrated or getting sucked into the scepter or something."

"Except you can't be sure." None of them could, because none of them used magic. God. Why couldn't Billy just stick to thunderbolts and lightning, very very frightening?

"It's our best theory, though." Bruce was frowning, though. Never a good sign, that. "Can we use your machines to track where it would have taken her?"

"I'm afraid not," Jane crushed Tommy's hopes almost before they arose. Only almost, though. His hopes were as fast as the rest of him. "I can't actually detect spells or anything, just fluctuations in energy levels. If I had been monitoring the destination, I could have spotted the arrival, but there's no way for me to figure that out from just readings that indicate a teleportation some time ago. You're going to need someone who actually deals with magic for that."

"Right. I suppose it would be a bit outside the grasp of science." Bruce hesitated for a moment, then asked, "Can Thor help us?"

"We already asked," Steve said before Jane could. "He says he's got very little knowledge in the matter of magic. He could tell someone had done powerful magic in the room, but he had no idea what it was." He paused. "However, he did confirm that there don't seem to be any traces of Loki in the scepter."

"Well, thank fuck for that," Tommy sighed. "Except that raises the question, were there traces of him there before?"

None of them could really look him in the eye at that.

Thankfully, none of them tried to stop him from running off, either.

Kate. Kate. He needed to find Kate, needed to draw her into his arms and make sure no psychopathic gods were going to make her into their plaything, and he needed to find Billy and sit him down and make it very clear he was never ever allowed to worry everyone like that again, do you hear now.

Except all he had were his fears and a whole lot of nothing.

*

This was not the Tower.

Billy knew this before he had even opened his eyes. The sounds were all wrong, the feel of the air around him off in ways he wasn't sure he could describe. The bed was definitely not the one he shared with Teddy, the sheets and mattress and pillows all different, and worst of all Teddy wasn't there. Definitely not the Tower.

Keeping his eyes shut, he focused, reaching out for any sign of magic. He found none. There was the usual background radiation he could find very nearly anywhere, the energy currents that most magic users manipulated to their own ends, but none of the bright beacons he was used to finding back at home. Thor and Mjölnir were absent, as was the bright, familiar warmth of his own room with its contents; he couldn't even find the much fainter lights that were his team, still carrying the faded remnants of his magic over a year after they had first arrived in this world. The tiny sparks of energy that made up the traffic of the streets were much closer than back in the higher reaches of the Stark Tower, maybe one, two stories down at most. And then there was the electricity, running along the wires so bright and full and vibrant, but poor and sparse compared with the all-enveloping network that was the Avengers Tower and JARVIS and Tony's omnipresent technology.

It really was only a matter of which kind of a ceiling he'd see when he finally opened his eyes.

It was, as it turned out, a rather uninteresting kind. Nothing particularly remarkable and absolutely not helpful in identifying his current location. Not falling apart, though, and a quick glance around the room revealed the place to be relatively clean. Two doors, one presumably to a bathroom, another slightly ajar, and a window to the street. If he was being held captive, those doing it were worse than amateurs. He could pretty much just walk out, no magic required.

Well, he could have, if shifting the slightest bit hadn't sent a wave of pain right through him. Clearly, he was somewhat worse for the wear.

It had to have been the battle, he concluded. His memories were hazy at best, but he did recall the very unpleasant experience of taking a spear to the side, along with a hit to the head from a passing ice projectile. Which explained the pain and the exhaustion, but not the fact that he had not ended up home.

Probably. He really couldn't remember much about the end of the battle.

It seemed he was relatively safe, though. Not a prisoner by the looks of it, and from what he could tell his wounds had been addressed at least to some extent, so obviously his hosts had an interest in keeping him alive. That was good. He could work with that.

Billy tried to reach for his magic, but found it evading his grasp. Fighting down the initial surge of panic, he concluded this had to be linked to his earlier ritual and the resulting exhaustion. He had already felt it during the battle, from what little he could recall; his injuries would hardly have helped the matter. He'd just have to get a little better, and his magic would be there again, taking him home safe and sound.

He heard footsteps along the floor outside the door, but exhaustion and dizziness won the battle, taking him off to slumber before he could even hope to see who it was.

Hopefully, he was safe enough to wake up.


	4. Conflicting Theories

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kate and the man who claims to be Coulson are stranded, at least until they run into someone very familiar. Billy's situation is not exactly looking any safer, while those back at home are starting to get at least some clues as to what happened. Teddy, however, is most definitely not fine, and Clint just wants to know what's real.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please note that chronologically, the scenes involving Kate in this chapter take place during the events of Chapter 3.

Magical transportation, Kate decided, was never going to stop being unpleasant.

Oh, she had mostly gotten used to Billy's brand of it, which was a blessing for all those times when they had no choice but to get 'ported to wherever they were going. She actually preferred being carried by Tommy, but that was not always an option, and repeated exposure had tuned the nausea into a mere unpleasant lurch most of the time.

This, however, was not Billy's teleport, and certainly not one of his portals. As they landed it took all her strength not to fall to her knees and empty her stomach. The man who claimed to be Coulson was not quite as fortunate, coughing and gagging on the ground. Kate averted her eyes out of consideration for them both, trying to get her stomach to settle.

"Magic," she murmured. "Never going to get used to it."

"You certainly seem more at ease with it than I am." Well, at least he recovered fast, still looking rather green around the gills but getting there. "What happened?"

"Hell if I know." They were outside, now, and not anywhere she recognized at a glance. A small alley, with view of a street outside, dead and quiet. The sky overhead was dark, with some dim glow from street lights nearby keeping them from plunging into total darkness. Definitely not New York, that much was clear at once. "Judging by the feeling, we just got magically transported somewhere pretty far."

"And you are used to magic because of Billy?" Oh, hey, that was fairly quick thinking. She liked that in a man. Would have liked it more if said man hadn't just threatened her with a knife.

"More or less. He's our magic expert."

"And who is this we?"

"The Avengers." She watched him closely, but his expression stayed unreadable beyond the slightest twitch. "But you wouldn't know about that, would you?"

"I know about the Avengers Initiative." He shook his head. "However, considering that was scrapped, I get the feeling this is something else."

"Avengers as a team were established after the Chitauri invasion." She gave him a grim smile. "From what I hear, the death of one Phil Coulson was rather a deciding factor in their becoming a more cohesive unit."

Now, there actually was emotion as his eyes widened in shock. "It -- it was?"

"So I've been told." She shrugged, trying to assess their situation. She still had her comm link on, but it couldn't link to anything, being way out of range. There was her little emergency pack on her belt, with a credit card and other small essentials, so at least they weren't entirely stranded. Still out of touch with everyone, though. "So. Far as I know, the man you claim to be is dead, but I'm rather unwilling to treat you as a hostile by default. Given that now neither of us knows where we are or how we got here, how about we work together for the time being?"

"Glad though I am to hear you're being so gracious, you will forgive me if I won't quite take that simply at face value."

"Well, I could tell you how I have a personal policy of not killing sentient beings except in self-defense, but then you wouldn't trust that either." She shrugged. "At the moment, I'd say I'm the one with less reason to trust you, though. You are the one who suddenly appeared in my home, threatened me with a weapon, and claimed an impossible identity."

"True enough." Finally he got up, swaying only a little before he gathered himself. He was rather smartly dressed, as she noticed now that they weren't in the dimly lit room anymore, with a nice suit and a crisp shirt. No sign of horrific wounds and blood. What that said about his story was another matter. "Though I do assure you, if I am not who I say I am, I will be the one who is most shocked."

"Sadly, I don't know enough to question you about anything that might help you prove your identity." Kate shook her head. "I've only heard bits and pieces, and definitely not any information that couldn't be gained elsewhere."

"And when did you and this Billy come to be associated with Avengers?" The man -- Coulson, that was easiest for now -- frowned. "When I last heard of them, they weren't quite that numerous."

"There were six at the time of the invasion, yes. Steve, Tony, Clint, Natasha, Bruce, and Thor." That was publicly available information, nothing too sensitive for her to reveal. While speaking she started walking out of the alley, hoping for more clues as to where they were. "We arrived some months after that -- Billy, Teddy, Tommy, and I. After a couple of minor crises, we were officially made part of the team in... November, I think."

"Four of you. And Billy is the magic user?"

"Yes. Billy Stark. Tommy is his twin brother." The name Stark gained her another minute twitch of surprise. Well, whether he had been dead or not, he clearly hadn't been accessing any kind of news outlets recently.

"Stark. They're Tony Stark's children?"

"Sadly, yes. If you've never dealt with three grumpy Starks before they get their morning caffeine, count yourself fortunate." She snorted. "Teddy is Billy's boyfriend. Which means he's usually on witch calming duty when Billy gets worked up about something. I think he and Pepper have been joking about forming a support group for Stark Sufferers." If that ever came to anything, she would be sure to join. Tommy was more than enough to drive a woman to drink sometimes, however much she loved him. Or at least to get a glass of wine and lock herself in the bathroom for an hour of hopeful peace.

"That is... quite surprising." He shook his head. "And if he uses magic, what do the rest of you do? I highly doubt you would be made Avengers purely by virtue of family relations."

"Indeed we weren't." The street signs and the newspapers in the window of a small shop they passed were in German. Which more or less confirmed they had crossed an ocean, which, yeah, not so great. Sadly, that did not yet narrow things down an awful lot. "Tommy's a speedster, Teddy can change his form, and I am very good with a bow and arrow." And an array of other implements of war, but that was hardly relevant here.

"Of course you are. You wouldn't be called Hawkeye otherwise."

"I should hope not. There'd be no honor in being Hawkeye if just anyone could claim the title." No visible clocks anywhere, which might have helped her at least figure out the country. Oh, it was dark all right, but determining the exact moment of night was not a very easy task. "You have any idea where we might be?"

"Besides a German-speaking area somewhere in Europe? I'm afraid I'm as lost as you are." He frowned. "It might help if it were a more sociable hour."

"Indeed. It's hard to even try to spot landmarks in the darkness." If there was anything recognizable around here. With her luck they had landed in some nondescript little village where nobody spoke a word of English.

"It often is." There was a wary note to his step, the way his head moved. Whoever he actually was, he was no ordinary civilian. "What I wouldn't give for a simple cell phone."

"What I wouldn't give just for my bow." Not that she was helpless without it, but walking around in the dark in an unfamiliar town with a strange man for company was not exactly easy on her nerves. "It might not help us figure out where we are, but at least I wouldn't feel quite so naked."

"Well, I wouldn't say no to my gun, either, but somehow I don't think that would help us win any friends." His lips twitched as though they had just shared a rather amusing joke. Which, okay, maybe they had.

"Oh, I don't know. I find people get a lot more cooperative when you're pointing at them with something potentially lethal."

"That, at least, is true enough."

They made little chatter after that, walking down the streets in relative silence, both scanning their surroundings for any potential threats or clues as to where they were. She wasn't sure exactly how long they spent walking around the unfamiliar town, but the night chill was starting to get to her in the most unpleasant manner. Turning yet another corner, Kate paused, frowning in thought. "Wait. I think I know this place."

"You do?" Coulson glanced around, probably trying to spot whatever landmark she had. Except all she saw was a very particular street she had seen in a picture just recently.

"Yes. Well, I think I do." She hurried her steps towards the next intersection. If she recalled right, there should be a warehouse within a couple of blocks. And then... "Yes. This is it." However unlikely it might have been.

"Might I inquire what, exactly, this 'it' is?"

"This is where Clint is on a mission." She narrowed her eyes, glancing around. Possible sniper spots were plentiful. The time shouldn't be at hand yet, but if she knew Clint at all, he would be busy building a nest and keeping an eye on things right now. "For SHIELD. He just shipped out a couple of days ago with Natasha."

"And how exactly would you know about that?" Coulson raised an eyebrow. Even in the semi-darkness of the sparse street lights, it was easy enough to read the dubious look on his face. "Unless SHIELD has changed their operation procedures very drastically in the last year or you are his handler, you should not know the exact location."

"I don't know the town, but I have seen pictures of the area." She gave him a grim smile. "Kind of have to, given that I'm his primary backup."

"Wait." Coulson frowned. "You said you don't kill on principle. And while I wouldn't go as far as calling Clint an assassin, his missions rarely involve handing around flowers, and sometimes casualties can't be avoided."

"See, this is where it's good to have very specific principles." She bared her teeth, just a bit. "I don't happen to count leaders of child trafficking rings as 'sentient beings.'" Which, yes, she was aware Billy would have disagreed with her, Teddy probably as well, but what they didn't know couldn't hurt them. And, frankly, she had little innocence left for sentimentality. She wouldn't kill an average crook, but there were lines you weren't supposed to cross, and once you did you might have as well forfeited your right to be treated with the consideration reserved for human beings.

"I think I can see how that would be an exception to the rule." Coulson glanced around again, then pointed. "There. Third floor."

"I'm more inclined to say fourth." Not that his pick was bad, either, but fourth gave a better access to the fire staircase. "He'd like the vantage point, and both rooms seem empty."

"I guess we will just have to see which one of us is right." Coulson frowned. "Not that it matters either way unless we find a way in. I'm afraid I left my lockpicks in my other suit."

"Which is why it's a good thing I'm not entirely empty-handed." She took her own set of picks from her belt pocket, hurrying her steps. "Come on. Let's find a door somewhere out of view." Because however late it might have been, she did not fancy being seen by a passerby and arrested for attempted burglary.

Thankfully Coulson was at least as competent as he claimed to be, and they found a side door soon enough. This one didn't even have security cameras on it, which was frankly just insulting. They didn't even warrant that much care? Honestly, whoever owned this building was damn well lucky they didn't actually plan on stealing anything.

Once inside, they both moved with care, all too aware there might still be traps or alarms hidden away. Clint was not an idiot, and would not leave his nest unguarded even if it was still some time until the actual action. While Kate knew she at least could stop him from, say, shooting them both, and could probably talk down a random SHIELD goon, it would still be more trouble than it could possibly be worth.

Third floor corner room turned out to be empty. Kate did her best not to let her smug smile show as they went back to the staircase, figuring it might not have endeared her to her companion in misery. Even so, she did feel free to cheer inside, just a bit. Of course Hawkeye knew Hawkeye best of all.

Which was why she was not really surprised to step out of the staircase and find herself held at arrow point.

Clint only took half a second to recognize her, eyes widening as he pointed his bow down and away from her chest, though he still kept the tension on it. "Kate?" he blurted. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Believe me, I'd tell you if I knew." She shook her head. "It seems we've been kind of misplaced."

"We?" Clint frowned. "Someone else here?"

"Just me." The words were calm enough, but Kate imagined she could feel the slightest tremor to the hand that settled on her shoulder to move her aside. She certainly did not imagine the way Clint's face turned pale as a sheet.

"Phil." His voice sounded strangled. "You -- what -- you're dead."

"I do remember dying, yes." Coulson didn't fare much better, though he was at least trying to sound brave. "I'm still not entirely sure what would have changed that."

"You see him, too?" Clint turned to look at Kate. "This isn't just me hallucinating or some shit?"

"Sorry, I do see him as well. Nothing that nice and easily explicable." Kate shook her head. "Billy didn't get home after a mission, I figured he'd be in his room, and instead I found this very lively ghost with amnesia, or whatever he happens to be."

"You..." Clint looked like he didn't know what to do. He finally allowed the bowstring to go lax, staring at Coulson. "It can't..."

"I assure you, far as I can tell, I am very much real." Coulson reached out his hand, placing it very carefully on Clint's arm. Yes, very physical. "I promise I'll do my best no to disappear, though it may not be entirely in my power."

"I'd hope you won't," Kate said. "Unless you turn out to be some really sick HYDRA scheme or whatever, I'd hate to be the one consoling daddy dearest once you die again or something."

"Daddy?" Coulson frowned. What, was that unclear?

"Oh, didn't she tell you?" Clint blinked. "Kate here's kind of my daughter."

The wave of nausea was even stronger, this time, making her double over as she tried her best not to lose what little she had in her stomach. She heard Clint saying something, sounding alarmed, and the sound of Coulson's knife falling to the ground, and then there was nothing that she could hear at all.

It was just as well, really, as mere moments later everything turned white.

*

This time, he woke with a headache.

There had been more pleasant mornings, Billy figured as he stirred, blinking up at the same unfamiliar ceiling as before. His head was pounding, and there was a sharp pain at his side that he most definitely did not enjoy.

"You shouldn't move yet." There was a hand on his shoulder, heavy but not unfriendly. "You had a rather bad gash on your side. It has been seen to, but it might be for the best for you to lie down for the time being."

"Uh?" Great, he couldn't even speak. Not that it was that much of a surprise, given how dry his throat was. "Hurts…"

"Undoubtedly." There was movement, and then a hand nudged the side of his face. He looked to see a couple of pills on the palm. "For the pain."

Billy obediently took the pills from the unfamiliar hand because apparently he had no self-preservation instinct whatsoever, then gratefully swallowed them with the cool water that was offered next. It wasn't until then that he managed to squint up at whoever owned the hand. He was not entirely sure what he had expected, but Magneto was not exactly it.

Then the memory from the battle hit him, of looking up and seeing the familiar face through the haze of pain, and he groaned. Right. He had seen Magneto, and in his pain had actually called him by the absolute wrong word, and now he was in a strange place with an international criminal standing by his bedside because apparently he was just that stupid.

There were differences, he noted, looking closer at the man before him. It was definitely Erik, of that he had no doubt, but his features were subtly different, seeming to bear even more exhaustion and well-hidden pain than those of the man he had known before. Whether that was a good thing or not, he couldn't be sure. "Who are you?"

"Oh, I believe you already know." So obviously the word had not just been in his head. Yeah, crap. "In fact, you might know things about me that even I am unaware of."

"And why do you think that?" Yeah, it was probably kind of useless to try to pretend he was clueless, but what else was he going to do?

"Well, there would be the part where you called my grandfather." Right. "And the fact that you and your brother look exactly like my son Pietro." Okay, so that at least wasn't his fault. Or at least it wasn't anything he could have helped.

"I got confused." Which wasn't that far from the truth, really. "You look a lot like my grandfather."

"Oh, I'm sure I do." Erik's lips twitched, though probably not with much amusement. "What is your mother's name?"

"I don't have one." Not anymore. He'd had two, and he had lost them both, and even though it had been a year it still hurt so bad to think of that. "This shouldn't be a surprise or anything, really. Our coming to live with our father was pretty well publicized." Tony had certainly made sure they had all the right publicity.

"I will not be that easily fooled." Erik frowned, his eyes sharp on Billy. "What is your mother's name?"

Well. Clearly he was not going to back down, but Billy refused to do that, either. Besides, this probably had come up in some interview or another; for all he knew, Erik was just testing out to see if his story held.

"Anya Eisenhardt." Which at the time had seemed like a sweet tribute when JARVIS had asked if they had any preferences for their little fake mother. Now, however, seeing the even harder look in Erik's eyes, it was clear it had not been the most successful choice.

"Impossible." The words came out through gritted teeth. "She died as a child. I buried her with my own hands."

Well. Of all the things to be similar between their worlds, that was not the most fortunate one. "Well, if you're not going to believe me, why don't you tell me your own theory?"

"I think you are not Tony Stark's child at all." Well, at least he started off well, even if Billy didn't want to admit it. "For whatever reason, you lie about where you come from, and he agrees with you. Doubtless because of SHIELD." And he knew about SHIELD. How much he knew, though, was a very good question.

"And why would I do something that ridiculous?"

"That, I do not know. But I suspect it has to do with the real identity of your parents." Erik shook his head. "You know Anya's name, and claim a connection to it, however incorrect. Your powers mirror those of my two surviving children. I do not know why you would lie that your parents are dead, but I do know it is not true. The story you have given to the public must be wrong."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because you are Pietro's son." Wow, that was… well. Good and bad at the same time. "And Pietro would not have died in a car crash, as you claimed happened to your parents. There is no car that could take him by surprise, and he would not let himself perish in such a manner, nor someone he loves."

"Except we're not." Yay, telling the truth! For once. "Tony is our father, not your son."

"Right. Which is why you have magic and your brother is fast. Obviously this is just one big coincidence."

"I have electric powers," Billy pointed out. "Wanda only has magic."

"Ah, but my powers can reach electricity as needed." Erik paused. "Besides, I cannot recall ever telling you the name of my daughter, nor the extent of her powers."

Uh. Damn. Diversion time? "Aren't you making this just a little too complicated?" Billy raised his eyebrows. "All this conspiracy and stuff is just because you think we're Pietro's children. Wouldn't it all make more sense if we were Wanda's kids? No miraculous saves, no bogus fathers, it all adds up nice and neat."

"Oh, certainly." Erik walked to the window, looking out of it with a contemplative look. "Except for one detail that doesn't match that particular story."

"And what's that?" She couldn't be dead, Billy decided. He wouldn't be speaking of her like she was alive if she'd died and he knew it. And while the SHIELD files hadn't been very detailed, they had not mentioned any deaths on the mission.

"Wanda cannot have children." Erik turned to look at Billy, and his eyes were dark. "Not since I stole that from her."

Ah. Right. Rebar through her middle. That would have had to do some damage.

As Billy sank back into his pillow, an arm over his eyes, it was only partly because of the headache.

When he looked again after a moment, Erik was gone.

*

"This is an interesting approach." Strange lifted his eyebrows at the sight of the shattered door. "I take it you did not have a key at hand?"

"Far as we know, the only two keys are with Billy and Kate." Tony leaned against the corridor wall, watching as the sorcerer walked in. Steve was torn between standing beside him and following Strange inside. In the end, he ended up hovering at the doorway. "Thor decided he could try and crash the door if he managed to get Mjolnir working with the wards just right."

"And it seems he succeeded." Strange walked to the middle of the room, looking around. His hands rose to his sides, and with the dark hair and red cape it was almost achingly familiar a sight, almost as though they had Billy back home. Then, however, he turned, and the illusion was gone.

"So what can you tell us?" Tony finally pushed himself away from the wall, walking closer. "Jane managed to tell us there were two outbursts of magic here yesterday, but that's all the info we have."

"The powers that were at play here are quite notable," Strange said. "As a teacher, I am quite disappointed he did not ask for my help for something of this magnitude, but as a fellow sorcerer I cannot help but be impressed."

"So what was he doing?" Steve frowned. "If we could figure that out, we might have more of an idea of what exactly happened here."

"This is definitely some kind of a summoning spell." Strange shook his head. "I'm sure I can figure it out soon enough, but it will take a moment. Especially since it seems someone made a mess of the room afterwards."

"This is how we found it." Tony made a sweeping motion with his hand. "We made sure not to poke around once we made sure Kate wasn't in here. So if you don't think Billy messed things up, it would have happened while Kate was in here."

"It would be quite strange if he had done so. Not that frustration can't cause people to do even unwise things, but the traces I can detect in the air were here too long for him to have immediately given up."

"Well, for what it's worth, Jane's data says the first burst lasted a while." Tony tilted his head. "But according to Teddy, Billy said he failed."

"We have to remember that anything he works with will necessarily be dependent on chaos magic." Strange crouched down to examine a remaining symbol on the floor. "That would give unpredictable results. It is entirely possible it took a while to succeed and he simply did not see the end result."

"But you can't tell us what he was trying to do that might have then caused Kate to disappear?"

"Actually, I was rather hoping you would tell me something." Strange's eyes were sharp as he turned towards them, now. "Why would he have Thanos's scepter?"

"I got it for him." And Tony looked pale, in a way that was not entirely explicable by his rather sleep-deprived night. "He asked me to, after talking with Clint about it."

"And what exactly had he been talking about?"

"Coulson." At Strange's questioning eyebrow, Tony sighed. "Agent Coulson, of SHIELD. He… got killed during the Loki debacle. As in, Loki put that damned thing through his chest while Thor watched from a Hulk-proof cell. It was a pretty shitty mess all around."

"And he didn't say what he was planning to do."

"He mentioned something about how the scepter might have had traces of Loki's magic in it. I think he was going to see if he could get rid of those, especially now that Loki's dead. Why he'd feel the need for something like that, I don't know, but maybe he thought it'd make Clint feel better or something."

"Well, he certainly thought it was important, considering how much time he's put into this," Steve sighed. "Pepper even asked me to talk with him since he was starting to neglect Teddy."

"That can't be right." Strange frowned. "Certainly, there might have been traces of magic left behind, but purifying those should have been a simple matter for someone of Billy's potential. It certainly shouldn't have taken him more than a day or two at most."

"What was he doing, then?" Tony tensed up, now, and Steve wanted so badly to just draw him close, but he knew Tony wouldn't have liked that right now. "You've got to have some idea, right?"

"Let's say I have my suspicions." Strange sighed. "But if they are correct, then the matter with Kate is easily enough explained. If Billy's magic interacted with the traces of Loki still trapped within the scepter, that would make the results of his ritual even more unpredictable than they might have otherwise been. I believe his magic resulted in an anchor of sorts, filled with the residual magic of two clashing chaos wizards, and when the anchor was triggered to teleport it took Kate with it."

"That really doesn't sound good." Though then, Steve was not exactly qualified to tell how much of all this magic stuff was good news or not. "But you're sure it wasn't just purification?"

"Absolutely. While I cannot say for certain without further analysis what he was doing, or how well he may have succeeded, just from the feel of magic in the air I can tell a very intricate ritual took place here, one that involved significant amounts of power. As I said before, as a fellow sorcerer I have to admit to being impressed."

"If you do a further analysis, can you track where Kate might have gone?" At least Tony was voicing Steve's own fears. "We're not sure if Billy was even taken by magic, so that's a more complicated matter, but if we could at least locate her…"

"I will certainly try, but, well, chaos magic. Tracing its path is rarely a simple matter." Strange shook his head. "However, what I can tell you is that if my suspicions turn out to be correct, I do not believe she is in any direct danger right now."

"Right. Because getting whisked away by the remnants of Loki's magic sounds so very safe." Steve sighed. "I really do not look forward to explaining this to Director Fury."

"Oh, allow me to handle that for now. It would be best in any case if I updated him on my observations about the magic at play, and I do believe he will want to have the scepter back in his care. Of course," Strange added with a twitch of his lips, "as it is now, there aren't many people around who could use it as anything more than a rather intricate spear, but I would expect the good Director to take the approach of rather being safe than sorry."

"Thank you." Steve wasn't sure if he was thanking Strange for his offer, for his reassurances about Kate, or simply for examining the matter for them. It applied to all three, in any case.

He just wished they would have had more concrete news already.

*

The room to Billy's magic room was open.

That was hardly a surprise, with people going in and out of it all the time trying to find clues, but the timing was somewhat unexpected. Strange had left some hours ago, and Bruce was sure Steve and Pepper had dragged Tony off as well. Tommy might have been there, but Bruce had seen lights on in his lab as he wandered down the corridor, so that couldn't be it.

He did not hurry along the corridor, not exactly, but he had to admit his steps were a bit brisker than usual.

Coming to a stop at the open door, he looked inside. The room looked more or less the same as he had seen it earlier in the day, with traces of magical symbols still drawn on the ground, the dim light of the sole lamp washing everything in half-shadow. Teddy sitting on the floor, however, well, that was new.

"Everything all right?"

Teddy blinked, then looked up at Bruce from where he had been tracing his fingertips along one of the thick books filling what seemed to be every available surface. "Hm? Oh, yeah, I'm fine."

"Please." He might not have been the boy's actual father, but then, he wasn't sure he would have needed to even know him to be able to tell that was a lie. There was tension on Teddy's face that he couldn't hide, a frown to his brows and a hunched form to his shoulders that would have been quite hard to miss. "It's not like I don't know you're worried about him."

"Yeah, well, I thought that would be somewhat obvious." Teddy sighed. "I... I can't help but blame myself for this."

"And why is that?" Bruce frowned. "You're not responsible for any of this."

"Perhaps not directly, but, well. I was acting like an ass." Teddy glanced around at the room that was full of things yet seemed empty. "Billy... well. You know he's been working on something for a while now, right? And now we know it was probably something to do with the scepter, but, well, I didn't know that before. He wouldn't tell me anything, just said it was important and he'd tell me everything I wanted to know once he was done, he just didn't want any further distractions."

"Well, it does make sense." Bruce walked in a couple of steps. While he didn't have the instant distaste for all things unscientific that Tony often displayed, he had to admit something about the room didn't sit quite right with him. Or perhaps it was the big guy who wasn't very happy about being there. He always was more sensitive to certain things. "I mean, if he was actually trying to resurrect Agent Coulson or however you would describe it, he wouldn't want to raise anyone's expectations in case he failed."

"Yeah, I know that now." Teddy sighed. "But, well. I'd been getting snappy about it. I just wanted to be included, you know? And besides, the way he kept locking himself up, it... it reminded me of before." He looked away. "Before we came here, there... there was a long period when Billy was, well, depressed. There's really no other way to put it. He didn't care about school, he didn't care about heroes, he barely even slept and ate. And the way he kept pushing everyone else away because of this, it reminded me of that time."

"And that scared you." He didn't bother to make that into a question. "Only instead of admitting that or explaining to him why you were concerned, you got irritated and angry and ended up pushing him further away."

"More or less, yeah." Teddy started drawing invisible patterns on the book cover again. "Just before this, I... I came here to get him, to tell him about the giants. And I snapped at him, asked him what could be so much more important than me." He paused, finger stilling as he stared at it as though hoping the book could reveal the solution to this mystery. "He told me not to worry about it since it had been a failure anyway. And he... he looked so disappointed, Bruce. Not in the experiment or magic or whatever, he was disappointed in himself. He thought he had let someone down, or worse had done something bad to someone. Just like before."

"And what happened then?" Bruce kept his voice calm. Clearly Teddy didn't need him to make any accusations or worse.

"I tried to ask him about it. He just said we'd talk once the giants had been taken care of, and 'ported off without me." The hand that was holding the book tightened its grip for a moment. "If I hadn't been so short with him, maybe he would have talked to me then. Maybe he would have at least let me go with him, so I would have been close to him during the battle, and he wouldn't have disappeared without me even noticing. And then Kate wouldn't have gone looking for him, and none of this would have happened."

"First off, it's no use dealing in what-ifs." Bruce knew that better than anyone. "We can't change the past. Well, I won't say anything about Billy because magic gives me a headache just trying to think about it, and I know for a fact Tony still hasn't let go of his dream of a functioning time machine, but the rest of us are quite helpless when it comes to things that have already come to pass. And besides, I won't say I know Billy as well as you do, but I do know some things, and one of those things is that sometimes he just needs to be alone. Even if you had been the very picture of sensitivity, he might still have gone off on his own, especially if he was blaming himself for the failure."

"That doesn't exactly help, you know."

"Oh, I know. I never said it was a good thing, either. Just that he has a tendency for this kind of thing, and you blaming yourself for something he might have well done anyway won't accomplish anything." He paused. "Now, this may be very hypocritical of me to say, but how about you get some sleep? Things might seem a lot different tomorrow."

"I know you've got good intentions, but I'm not just sitting here for my good health." Teddy shook his head. "I -- I can't sleep. I can't go to our room, our bed, when I know Billy isn't there and I don't even know where he is. And I can't just go into one of the guest rooms, either. I just keep thinking about Billy and where he might be, and if I'm going to be doing that anyway, I'd rather at least be somewhere I can feel a bit closer to him."

Except for the part where the location made him wallow in guilt and self-pity even more. "Then perhaps you should try to exhaust yourself so that you'll fall asleep regardless of your thoughts." Bruce leaned down to touch Teddy's shoulder gently. "How about a spot of sparring? I find exercise does wonders when I can't get to sleep."

"Uh, no offense, but I think I'll rather skip that." Teddy lifted his eyebrows. "I don't think I'm in the best mood to be practicing self-control right now."

"You don't have to, though." Bruce gave him a wan smile. "I never said it would be with me, did I?"

Now, the skeptic expression was replaced with a frown. "Are you sure?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" He patted Teddy's shoulder. "I rather need the break from thinking too much, too." Which wasn't entirely untrue. All this had him thinking far too much about things that only made his anxiety grow, and letting the big guy take over would help with that. It was a relief for him in a way, at least when he stayed in control. The big guy didn't think too much about things. Sure, he was somewhat unhappy to see Teddy so distressed, in as much as he ever expressed an opinion on the matters of puny humans, but in his opinion sparring was the perfect way to address such unhappiness.

Teddy seemed to agree. Bruce soon found himself in the reinforced gym made for just such occasions, staring down something almost as huge and green as his own body was at the moment. Then, after merely a moment of hesitation, Teddy lunged forward with a cry Bruce wasn't entirely sure was directed at them.

He wasn't entirely shut out, of course, not when he voluntarily stepped back, but he did get to take something of a passenger approach to everything. The big guy's thoughts were in the foreground, his feelings and frustrations flowing out, while Bruce got to enjoy a somewhat detached feeling. At the moment, that was not a bad thing.

Hulkling's hands were smaller than his, his fists easy to catch in Hulk's huge palms, but the boy didn't give up. Strength-wise, they were more matched than many might have thought possible, enough to surprise even Bruce. He knew from lab measurements and field experience that Teddy measured his full lifting strength in tons, but it was always different to have the actual proof of it pushing against the big guy's hands and arms.

'Little green angry,' the big guy thought, and Bruce found himself agreeing. Yes, Teddy was angry, at the situation and at himself and at the world in general, and if the opportunity to take that anger out on someone he couldn't actually harm helped him at all, then Bruce was willing to provide that opportunity.

'He is very angry,' he thought back. It wasn't often that he got to have actual dialog with the other guy, but right now it only seemed appropriate. 'Billy is away, and he misses him.'

'Little spark should come home,' the other guy replied, and Bruce found he could only agree. 'Everyone unhappy. Shiny man talk much.'

'I'm sure he'll come home when he can.' Hulkling actually managed to change his grip enough to hurl him against the closest wall, which was not a mean feat. Of course, being just as indestructible, Hulk only got to his feet and prepared for the next clash.

'Little spark needs to come home soon.' See, world? Even Hulk disagreed with the way things were, so it would be in everyone's best interests to change them. 'Then little green will be happy.'

'Yes.' And that, he found it very easy to agree with. 'Yes, they both need to come home soon.'

As Hulkling rushed forward again it was with a pained howl, even though Bruce was quite certain he hadn't been injured, his fists colliding with the other guy's at increasing speed and force. Yes, definitely angry, so very angry it almost frightened him coming from his calm and kind adopted son, and reminded him his code name was not only appropriate for the sake of appearances.

He hoped whoever had taken Billy was prepared for what awaited them, because it was not going to be pretty.

*

Tommy was playing catch with Dummy.

This, he felt, was a very good demonstration of just how miserable his life had become. Not because there was anything wrong with playing with Dummy, the bot was better company than most people he knew, but because it was past midnight and he had nothing better to do than sitting in the corner of Tony's workshop and tossing a ball at a sentient arm. Not even sleep seemed tempting enough, not when it meant a lonely bed without any actual company.

He wanted Kate back.

He might not have even noticed anyone arriving at the workshop if Dummy hadn't reacted, turning his arm toward the door. Turning to follow the robot's gaze, Tommy saw Tony walk into the middle of his workshop as the screens came to life one by one. Well, that was curious. Not that Tony didn't often work late, but he usually didn't start a project at such an hour. Which obviously meant Tommy had to creep into a better position to see what was going on.

"This better be damn important." Tony flopped down in his seat as Fury's face appeared on the screen. "And damn sensitive, too, since you couldn't use a phone or any other computer."

"Believe me, I have my reasons for wanting to be secure." Fury paused, only for a second, before dropping his bomb. "Barton is missing."

Tommy drew a sharp breath, then set a hand on Dummy's arm as the robot whirred in concern. No need to alert the two to his presence just yet.

"He is?" Tony frowned. "When? How?"

"We don't know the exact time. He was on location for his mission over in Europe, his last check in at 2AM local time. When Widow went to accompany him in the morning, he was gone. We haven't been able to locate him since."

"What?" Tony straightened up. "Regardless of where in Europe you've got him, that's ages ago! Why didn't you inform us earlier?"

"At the time, we had no reason to believe this had any connection to you. The only one who might have been informed was Hawkeye, and since she was already missing at the time, we merely proceeded according to standard procedure. However, some things have come up that suggest a connection between the disappearances."

"Oh? And are you going to actually tell us what it is?"

"Strange came in for a report after checking in with you. By that time, some potential clues from Barton's location had been transported here. Turns out one of them caught our good sorcerer's interest." There was the briefest of pauses. "This ring any bells?"

Tommy bit back a curse as Fury held up an ornate dagger. Of course he recognized it. Billy had spent several days playing with it once, trying to make it glow in the presence of people with evil intentions. Except right now, it was supposed to be missing.

"That's Billy's." Tony had obviously come to the same conclusion. "It went missing from his room at the same time as Kate did."

Fury nodded. "Strange tells me as much. Furthermore, he told me Billy hasn't personally handled this in the past few days, though there are traces of magic attached to it. And yet, we find it ten feet from where Hawkeye was supposed to be nested."

"Nobody left the room through a door since Teddy went to get Billy. I'll have JARVIS check the footage, but I'm also pretty sure nobody's taken the dagger out recently, and I personally saw it there four days ago. So, going with Strange's theory, this magic anchor was created, swept Kate and the dagger away, took them over to Clint and exchanged him for the knife."

"Well, we're certainly investigating this as being connected to your little mystery at the moment." Fury gave an exaggerated sigh. "Fucking magicians. If everyone stuck to guns, we would have so much less headache."

"Then again, if everyone stuck to guns instead of mysterious powers or diabolical end-of-the-world machines, there would be little work for the Avengers." Tony stood up, rolling his shoulders. "So, what's the next step? Face recognition?"

"We'll get to work on it, but it'll probably take a while. Especially since Barton at least will be avoiding cameras simply by instinct." Fury snorted. "We'd probably have better luck keeping an eye on the Hawkeye fansites. Those loonies seem to know everything long before us."

"Actually, that might not be necessary." Both men turned to look at Tommy as he walked forward in sight of the camera, but like hell was he going to let that stop himself.

"Oh?" Fury raised an eyebrow, apparently not surprised to see him there. Though then, if he'd wanted an entirely private communication, he would have called Tony up to the helicarrier, or at least chosen some other way of contacting him than a glorified Skype call, secure or not. "And why is that?"

"Because we've got a much faster way of finding them if Clint's gotten caught into this mess." Tommy glanced at Tony. "You know I've been tweaking the comm links, right?" Because his nigh-obsession wasn't obvious or anything.

"Yeah." Tony nodded, giving him a questioning look. "We did find that recording off Billy's piece, remember? But that wouldn't help us find anyone, or we would have him home by now."

"Good thing that's not my only idea, then." Tommy turned to Fury. "I went pretty simple, and put a GPS chip in Hawkass's ear piece. Yes, with his knowledge and consent and all that shit, going behind people's backs is not my particular flavor of mad scientist. It's not quite as good as it might be if we knew at least an approximate area, but I'd figure even going through all the GPS data in the world to find that particular chip would be simpler than combing through all the camera data and running it through face recognition, instead."

"That would certainly help us along." Fury nodded slowly. "And you are willing to give us the identification data needed?"

"Well, you've got the resources to track it. Long as you don't then keep me in the dark about the results, I'll do everything I can to help you find the old idiot." Tommy took on his most serious look. "If there's even the slightest chance this could help us find Kate, I'll do everything I can."

"Right." Fury made a small grunt of acknowledgment. "Send the data over, and we'll get to work."

"It's in my lab." Tommy shrugged. "It's not linked through to the main system because, well, I'm difficult like that, but I'll get it to you in the next ten minutes. JARVIS knows how to patch things through to your system, right?"

"I'm fairly sure he can get things into our system with or without our cooperation." Fury's wry tone was his way of saying goodbyes, apparently, as the connection cut off right then.

"So." Tony turned to look at him, apparently insistent on having the conversation even as they started to walk toward his lab. Tommy restrained himself enough to fit his pace to Tony's instead of running ahead. "How'd you put working GPS in the comm piece?"

"It's not that complicated." Tommy rolled his eyes. "I had the pieces and more than enough schematics to go by, and it's not like I'm short on playtime."

"Yeah, well, I happen to have designed that unit, as you'll recall. And there was no room left for another chip, however small it might be."

"Oh, that?" Tommy picked up his steps, just a bit, nothing too fast for Tony to keep up with. "I had to make the rest of the stuff smaller to fit in my last attempt at magic-proof casing. Didn't work at all, by the way, Billy fried it with an angry thought or something, but it was a damn good effort. And then I already had the smaller bits so I took the old case and put the GPS in to give to Clint."

"And you never thought to mention that?"

"I didn't think it was very important. I mean, it didn't seem like it'd have much of an application except for the SHIELD pets who run around the globe like they don't have anything better to do." Tommy shrugged. "Besides, Steve's always getting on your ass about testing things properly, I thought I'd better not attract the same attention. So, I gave it to Hawkass to try out on the field. And yes, I made sure he had a standard spare on hand if it failed."

"You made the tech smaller and didn't think it was worth a mention?" Tony sounded almost incredulous.

"Why? You can't make the actual casing smaller and still have it be comfortable, so it's not like there was any application until I'd successfully, you know, put something in the available space. Which I'm working on, as demonstrated."

"Kid, I designed that thing. Which means I optimized the hell out of it, just to get everything already in there into that particular size. Believe me, if I'd had any spare room left over, I'd have found a use for it even if a smaller case would've been impractical. Hell, I'd have etched a picture of my ass on the inside of every last unit just for the hell of it if I'd had the space."

"Yeah, well, remember that alloy you were working on for the strap fastenings on Cap's shield? Turns out iteration four makes pretty damn good antenna material, enough that I managed to make the antenna almost half the size without a significant drop in efficiency. I ran the numbers on it, and a couple of standard shop tests, but that's why I made sure Clint's got his spare, just in case the antenna isn't quite up to snuff out there."

"You know, I'm currently having trouble deciding if I should be proud or thinking of places to hide your body." As Tommy gave him a questioning glance, Tony sighed in an exaggerated manner. "I hate patent applications. And I've got a feeling this'll lead to one, and you're obviously going to need my help, it's your first time after all."

"That sounds vaguely dirty. I'm not sure I want to discuss any kind of first times with you."

"Oi, that's unfair. I know all about first and second and third times. Which reminds me, you and Hawkette are being safe, right? I mean, I'd hate for you to get careless when we do get her back and it's time for wild celebratory sex."

Tommy snorted. "Yeah, just shut up." Though he did like the mention of Kate coming back. Yeah, that sounded about right.

"No, seriously, are you being safe? Because if there's anything about safe sex you're unsure about, I can help. Seriously, ask me anything. I'm the safe sex guru around here. I've kind of got to be, given my lifestyle from about fourteen up until Pepper lost her mind somehow and agreed to go out with me. It's the only reason I'm not currently funding either the Stark Bastard K-12 or the Tony Stark Memorial STD Ward." Tony paused. "Wait, I couldn't fund a memorial anything in my own name, could I. No matter, Pepper would surely have done that if I'd expired due to my poor life choices. Which, by the way, would be totally fine, if it ever comes down to it. I'd appreciate the irony, dead or no."

"You're rambling again. Just, you know, in case you hadn't realized that." Tommy sighed and shook his head. "Yes, we're being safe, not that it's actually any of your business; if we decide we want to be dealing with shitty diapers, we're old enough to make that call ourselves. Which, before you get yourself worked up again, is not going to happen any time soon, thanks. Especially since we're currently wasting our time instead of getting Kate back home."

"Right, right, point taken." And, in a rather unique moment, Tony actually remained silent until their brisk pace brought them to Tommy's lab. He punched in the access code and marched in as the door slid open. Then he was at his main terminal in a flash, not about to wait for Tony to cross the rest of the way before getting to work.

Thankfully the terminal woke up in moments, letting Tommy attack his files, tossing projections this way and that. They were calibrated to keeping up with his speed, up to their functional limit anyway, as measured by his heart rate. He'd tweaked the actual standards, of course, taking into account the differences in perception that Tony couldn't possibly be aware of. Now the reactions were still fit to his physical speed, so the elements could move and twist in sync with his hands, but the frame rate had been updated significantly. At last he wasn't watching a damn slide show all the time when looking at a screen. Or, well, holographic projection, but the difference was nominal in this place.

"This, this, and this." He gathered the relevant data all into one folder. "JARVIS? Make sure this shit gets to SHIELD, top priority. And leave a port in there somewhere, I want to be able to sniff around if they get a bit slow on getting back to us."

"I'm pretty sure I'm supposed to tell you that's not nice to spy, but I'd have done it myself if you hadn't, so I won't get all hypocritical on you." Tony nodded. "Fury gets so easily distracted sometimes."

"I bet." Tommy snorted. "Well, that's that. I guess I'd better go tell Dummy goodnight." And then perhaps hit the gym in the hopes of exhausting himself. He still didn't expect sleep to come any time soon, but he had to make a fair attempt at least. It would take SHIELD some time to locate Clint, even with the data, and he had to be rested and ready for action when that happened.

Tony didn't say anything, but he did touch Tommy's shoulder briefly as they both walked out of the lab.

He supposed there wouldn't have been any words available that he would have believed, anyway.

*

"So, that was fun." Clint blinked up at the hint of a sky up between the high buildings on either side of him. "I'm presuming that was magic."

"That is what the evidence seems to suggest, yes." And that was Phil's voice, still, it really seemed to be Phil, and he still wasn't entirely sure he wasn't just trapped in some kind of a bizarre, sadistic dream. "Anything else to add?"

"Yeah, I feel kinda sick." Nevertheless, he pushed himself up to at least sit on the ground, looking around. Phil was sitting some ways away, looking rather sickly, while Kate had managed to stagger up to her feet, glancing around. "Where are we?"

"On a different continent, judging by the light." And, yes, that was daylight up there, and plenty of people bustling about on the street. Asian, for the most part. The sounds corresponded to a rather big city, which, yeah, kind of got the hint from the skyscrapers. "I really, really don't like this."

"Yeah, I'm not really a fan, either." Clint grunted, getting up to his feet, then extended a hand to Phil. The hand that took his was warm and alive, and it wasn't until he realized this that Clint could admit to himself some small part of him had feared it would be but an illusion. "So, I'm presuming this is how you ended up near me?"

"More or less, yes." Kate shook her head, dark hair settling about her shoulders. "I found him in Billy's room, there was a flash of white, we were in the town you were located in. No, we don't know why we were teleported or who did it."

Clint raised his eyebrows. "I'd say Billy's a rather good suspect, for all that the why doesn't really make sense to me, either."

"Except Billy wasn't home, which was why I was checking his room in the first place." Kate sighed. "Magic. It always gives me a headache, when it doesn't make me nauseous in a very literal sense."

"Well, isn't that just fucking cheerful." Clint sighed. "So. We've got to figure out some way to carry my quiver around without looking too suspicious." Because like hell was he leaving his quiver and bow behind."

"Here." Phil started taking off his jacket. "Fold the bow and hide them both with this. It's a temporary measure, but it should do for now."

"I've got a credit card," Kate added. "We can get a bag or something to carry them in. And then something to eat. I haven't had a bite since before we headed out to fight ice giants, and while I'm not sure exactly how long it's been since then, it's been enough that I'm starving."

"Aye, aye, princess." Clint grinned. "Though I expect a very thorough report of that ice giant mission. Sounds like something that might've been fun."

"Not really." Kate waited until he had actually concealed his weapons into a rather suspicious-looking but slightly less terrible bundle before walking out onto the street. "Arrows didn't do much against them, except for the explosive tips. And then we got home and realized Billy was missing."

"Ouch." He made a face, glancing at Phil. "And then you went and found the ghost?"

"Yeah, except he seems to be very much alive." Kate glanced at Phil, who nodded.

"Far as I can tell, I'm as alive as I ever was. How that can be, I'm not sure, as I distinctly remember dying." Even without his jacket and pale from exhaustion and nausea Phil managed to look prim and proper as he walked down the street, eyes scanning their surroundings. "Japan, I see."

"Tokyo, if I had to guess." Clint nodded. "Not that I've been here recently. Last time had to have been that big smuggling ring. Remember? You actually let me go undercover with Nat instead of waiting in the rafters."

"Yes, well, she figured her cover would be better if she had a trophy husband at her arm." Phil's lips twitched in the slightest hint of a smirk, and Clint's heart ached at the familiar sight. "As I remember, you still managed to climb almost to the ceiling before the night was over."

"Hey, it's not my fault they had an angry goat at the society party." And Phil just chuckled, in that understated way of his, and God, it really was Phil, it had to be. Nobody but himself and Natasha and Phil knew about the frantic climb to escape the goat.

Fortunately, Kate had been telling the truth about a credit card. They soon located a suitable store with Clint's somewhat shaky but very industrious attempts at Japanese, hiding his weaponry in a slightly less suspicious form. After that, Kate dragged them off to the closest fast food place. Clint didn't bother to protest. They needed to hatch a plan, and he thought better when he had something to eat.

Kate seemed to relax, slowly, not quite as strained as she had seemed when he had first welcomed them at arrowpoint. He supposed he couldn't blame her; getting transported across the Atlantic and wandering around a darkened town with a dead man she only knew from stories couldn't have been easy on her nerves. Now she seemed more comfortable, though. And no, this was absolutely not about him watching her so closely so he could avoid thinking about the reality of having Phil sitting right there next to him, either Phil or an illusion or the final proof that he had snapped and gone mad. Hey, he wouldn't have been too surprised.

"So." Kate looked at both of them sharply. "He claims he's Phil Coulson."

"To the best of my knowledge, I am." Phil didn't seem very fazed by her suspicion. Then, he rarely was. "I would presume magic was involved. Especially since I happened to wake up with the very same weapon that took my life."

"Wait, what?" Clint blinked. "The scepter was there?"

Kate nodded. "Some sort of spear-like thing? It was there in Billy's room, along with signs of magic. Which is why I'm not entirely dismissing the theory, unlikely though it seems."

"Magic." Magic had cost him Phil once, already. It had stolen his mind and his will and left him helpless to save the one he loved. "And now it's tossing us around the world without rhyme or reason."

"About that." Kate looked at Phil. "The first time we jumped, it was right after I told you my name. The second time, Clint had just told you that I'm his daughter. I can't help but see a pattern here."

"I was thinking of the same thing." Phil nodded, and yeah, of course he was ahead of the game, he always was. "I was... well. I rather misunderstood the situation."

"Oh?" Clint frowned. "If she'd already introduced herself, what'd you misunderstand?"

"I, ah." Phil lowered his eyes, just for a moment, the only sign of embarrassment he would ever show in public. "I thought... she was your wife."

"What?" It was a good thing he didn't have any food in his mouth at the moment, because he would have spat it right out. "That's -- that's ridiculous!"

"Even aside from the fact that he's gay and I'm taken, yeah, no. First he was a brother figure, and then he helped me out with my fake identity and became a father figure, and if I wanted to navigate any of those particular minefields in my sex life I would be arranging a threesome with the twins, not marrying Clint."

"And that's a mental image I most definitely did not need." Clint made a face, then looked at Phil. "And a wife? Seriously? It's barely been a year since..." Since he'd lost Phil.

"I know." Phil nodded slowly. "Which was partly why I was so shocked in the first place."

"That's it." Kate snapped her fingers, then pointed at Phil. "If you were brought back by magic, it was Billy's magic. And Billy's magic tends to flare when he gets too shocked or otherwise emotional. So the shock must have triggered the magic, which caused us to jump."

"And the places kind of make sense, too," Clint agreed, catching on. "First the magic brought you near me, because you were thinking about me. And then we ended up here, where I was pretending to be married to Nat." Hey, it was as good an explanation as he was going to get. It worked well enough for him.

"Indeed." Phil nodded slowly. "I... I'm really not sure what to think. This all seems rather complicated."

"Well, first things first. We need a phone, and then we need to contact the Tower. Then we get home and Billy takes control of his magic. You'll just have to stay calm until then." Kate glanced at Phil. "Though if you are who you say you are, that shouldn't be a problem."

"Right." Phil drew a deep breath. "Just refrain from any more outrageous statements and I should be fine." Because if anyone could keep his calm after being resurrected and thrown around the world a few times, it was Phil Coulson.

God, Clint loved him far too much.

"So." Kate clapped her hands as they headed out of the restaurant. "A cell phone store, somewhere. I've got JARVIS's emergency number memorized, just in case Tony's finally gone to sleep."

"I doubt that'd happen," Clint argued. "He tends to have a bad habit of not going to bed when he should, especially when something's going on."

"Yes, well, he also has both Pepper and Steve to drag him there, now, so I'm kind of hopeful he might actually get to sleep at some point."

The bad thing about Phil, Clint realized just as he heard the surprised gasp, was that he could draw the most outrageous yet correct conclusions from the very slightest bits of evidence. At least, he decided it was bad right now as his stomach lurched, then everything went white before his eyes.

At least they'd already managed to pay for their food.


	5. Hopes and Fears

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kate calls home at last, while Billy is speaking with Erik. While waiting for their ride home, Kate's party gain another member, this time rather unexpected. Teddy is still worried, as is Steve, though he at least has someone to hold close.

"Sir?" JARVIS's words broke into his thoughts without preamble. "Sir, there is a call for you."

"It'd better be important." Tony frowned at the screen, where he was working through the data from the battle for the umpteenth time. "I'm kind of busy here."

"You know I wouldn't let it through at such a time if I did not believe it to be important, Sir."

"Right." Tony sighed. "Who is it?"

"Oh, such affection, Stark. I can just hear the affection pouring from every last cell of your miserable body." The connection wasn't the best, but the voice was crystal clear.

"Hawkass?" Tony sat up straighter. "Where are you? What the hell have you been doing? Is Kate with you?" She had to be. Their theory had to hold, or they would have nothing to go on.

"Yeah, she is, and she's not the only one." Clint paused. "Phil's here, too."

"Wait." Tony frowned, not that Clint could see it. "You're saying Coulson is with you?"

"That's what it sure looks like."

"I hate to break this to you, bunnylicious, but he's kind of out of order."

"Not anymore." And yeah, that was Coulson's voice, and all of a sudden all breath left Tony's body. "I assure you, as far as I can tell, I am most definitely alive."

"Damn. So that's what Billy was trying to do." It made sense, in a weird, twisted kind of way. "He was bringing you back."

"It seems so." Kate cut in. Apparently they were on speaker phone. "He woke up in Billy's room without any memory past his death. It seems some of the magic is still clinging to him, though, since we keep teleporting around the globe every time he gets shocked."

"And is that why it took you three damn days to call home?" Okay, it was just two, but still. It was the third day, wasn't it? "And why we couldn't pinpoint your comm link?"

"Sort of. We were all ready to get a phone and call home, and then Kate mentioned you being with both Steve and Pepper, and apparently the news of your obscene practices shocked him enough to send us to a forest." Clint's voice took on a whining tone that meant he was perfectly fine, he never whined like that when something was actually wrong. "A forest, Stark! And then this tiny little village in what I think was Albania, and then a fucking llama farm, and no, Phil, I do not want to know what you were thinking that the magic would have taken us there. We can't control exactly where we end up, so ever since Kate figured it out we've been trying to shock Phil and hoping we end up somewhere we can actually contact you. And every time shocking him got harder and harder, and when we finally got into a big enough place to have any hope of getting a phone we had to wait because of course it was the middle of the night when we got here."

"Right. And here we all were, worried out of our minds that you might be in danger, while you were having a magical field trip around the globe." He didn't even bother to cover up the relief in his voice. "Where are you? I'll get SHIELD to work on getting you home, you probably can't exactly get on a standard flight without your passports." Never mind the fact that Coulson was legally dead. If it actually was Coulson. Except if Clint said it was, he wasn't sure anyone else could argue otherwise.

"We're in Cairo at the moment." Kate sighed. "Please tell Billy to figure out how to take his magic out by the time we get there. I don't want to go through a single more teleport in the next decade or so."

"Uh. About that." Tony swallowed. Of course they didn't know. "We still haven't found Billy."

"What?" Kate's voice was surprisingly small. "He's not home yet?"

"No. And what evidence we have suggests he might be with Magneto." And that was actually their best case scenario. God, their lives were terrible. "We're working on it, though. Strange's apparently scanning for any signs of his magic, and thanks to Teddy's earring we know he's alive and at least relatively well." At least, his pulse was steady enough. Which was all they had to go by right now.

"I suppose that's better than being definitely dead." Kate sighed. "Right. Get word to SHIELD, we'll find some ways to pass the time."

"It would probably save some time if we got in touch with some local SHIELD contacts," Coulson cut in, efficient as ever. "I think I remember a name or two."

"Right." Tony nodded, his hands already dancing on the screens to pull up his own SHIELD contact information. Screw official channels, he was pretty sure he'd managed to hack Fury's personal number at least once. "We'll get to work right away. Try to stay out of trouble, and call us if anything changes."

"Will do." Kate paused. "Tell Tommy not to head over. The last thing we need is the team getting split up any more. I'll be there soon enough."

"Got it." At last he'd have some measure of good news. It had been long enough without any. "And -- don't drop off the radar again. I'm not sure I can hold him back if you do, and even he would take a while to comb through the entire planet."

"We'll try our best not to." And then the call was cut, just like that.

"JARVIS?" Tony didn't take his eyes off the screen. "Did that just happen?" Because he wasn't about to trust his own senses on something as important as this, damn it.

"I'm happy to say it indeed did, Sir." JARVIS actually took on a slightly pleased tone. "Shall I inform the rest of the team?"

"Do so. And then call this number. I want Fury's ear, and I want it now, and if he doesn't answer I'm damn well taking the Quinjet and flying to the Helicarrier myself." It had been long enough already. Two days of being missing was simply unacceptable. People were supposed to be safe in his house, damn it.

He tried not to think about how long it had been for Coulson. Dwelling on that would not actually accomplish anything, after all. His time would be much better spent trying to figure out exactly how he would convince Fury that they needed a SHIELD escort for a dead man to come home.

Though then, this being Coulson, Fury just might take a risk and just go with it. His good eye and all that.

Time to see exactly how important that title was.

*

"I brought you something to eat."

"Thanks." Billy sat up and looked over to where Erik stood in the doorway, carrying a tray. "You know, of all my experiences with being held somewhere against my will, this has got to rank in the top three in terms of comfort." The very short stay in the Avengers mansion definitely earned a high rank, though in all honesty it hadn't lasted long enough for him to give it a proper score.

"I am so honored to hear such praise." Well, at least it was clear enough where the family sense of humor came from. "Hopefully the food will meet your expectations."

"I'll settle for warm and not poisoned." He wasn't sure exactly how much time had passed since he came here, but it was far too long a time to go without food, regardless of the fact that he hadn't had much of an appetite before. "Ah, burgers. I very much approve of this."

It was kind of weird, eating with someone staring at him like that, but Billy didn't let it bother him too much. The burgers were actually pretty good, though the cold coke that accompanied them gave birth to a new headache. Still, his empty stomach very much thanked him for its change in status, so he wasn't going to let one international criminal deter him from filling it further.

"Thank you." Billy let Erik take the tray away from him. "I don't suppose you're feeling accommodating enough yet to let me go?" It was kind of annoying, not feeling strong enough to just teleport himself out. Well, either annoying or distressing, and he absolutely refused to panic, so annoyance it was.

"I'm afraid I still want answers. And not the ones you are so very willing to give me."

"Yeah, I figured." Billy made a face. "Stubbornness runs in your family."

"And what would you know about that?" Please. As though they both didn't know there was something going on here that Erik just hadn't quite figured out yet.

"You want the truth." Billy leaned his elbows on his knees, trying not to jostle his aching head too much. Maybe if he stayed still enough, the ache would go away instead of growing worse. "If I tell you the truth, will you at least hear me out before claiming it can't be true?"

"Depends on what you tell me." Erik's eyes were sharp as they locked on him. "I will not accept just any fairy tale."

"You know I have magic." That was hardly a secret. Sure, there was a lot of speculation as to the exact nature of his powers, and there was no official explanation available, but it was clear enough that he was not simply another lightning god. "The thing is, that magic is a lot more powerful than just putting up shields and teleporting people."

Erik frowned but nodded, not interrupting. Great. If he got through the entire story, perhaps he could convince him it was actually true.

"You're right. We are genetically related to you, Tommy and I. However, that does not mean we are your grandchildren." That definitely got interest, judging by the way his eyes flashed, but still no interruption. "I -- okay, here's the deciding factor. Will you, or will you not, believe me if I tell you there are alternate worlds? Places where things and people are different from this one?"

"I am willing to consider the possibility, if it all adds up." Hey, better than he expected.

"Well, we are from one such world." Billy sighed. It... wasn't pleasant, still, discussing that. Sure, he had gotten used to the idea of spending the rest of his life in this world instead of their original one, but that didn't mean it was going to be easy. "In the world I was born in, everyone knew about mutants. We're not as numerous as we used to be," and there was an understatement if he'd ever heard one, but it was probably better not to aggravate Erik too much, "but everyone knows. There are school courses and laws and movies about us, and everyone has an opinion."

"Of course." Erik's expression darkened for a moment. "Everyone tends to have one about these things."

"Not everyone is happy, of course." Billy grimaced. "Over there, you... well. The Erik Lehnsherr there used to be a terrorist. However, recently he switched sides. He's still not a big fan of ordinary humans, but he's not aiming to eradicate them, either. And that Erik had four children, of whom three survived." He paused. "We're not Pietro's children. In our world, we're Wanda's." And the matter was so much more complicated than that, but it was the best explanation he could offer right now without going into too much detail.

"So that's why you argued with my theory." No anger, no denial, just a logical statement. "Because I was close, but not quite there."

"Right. Your logic was sound, based on the information you had. Yes, our powers are hereditary. Yes, I got my magic from a Wanda and Tommy his speed from a Pietro, just not the ones you know. My magic brought us into this world, and we cannot go back, so instead of leaving us without anywhere to go the Avengers decided to take us in and give us new identities."

"So you do not know where Pietro and Wanda are."

"I'm afraid not." Billy shook his head. "We tried to find out, of course, when we first arrived and didn't know what happened. Tony even managed to find SHIELD files that told us they were working to put an end to your activities. However, after the last mission where Wanda was injured, they left SHIELD, and their current location is unknown."

"So it's a dead end after all."

Billy blinked. "What?"

"I was so certain when I saw you on the news that I had found the clue I needed." Erik frowned, running a hand over his white hair. "When I thought you were Pietro's children, I was sure I could use you to find him."

"That's what you're after?" No wonder he hadn't answered any questions earlier before finding out exactly how Billy was related to the situation. If he had been wrong, it would have been useless anyway. "You want to find them?"

"What did you think? That I would use you as a hostage, perhaps ask for ransom? No. I figured you had some reason for concealing the truth, and if I could prove that I had seen through the deception, you would come around and tell me where to find Pietro."

"And if you can find Pietro, you can find Wanda." Of that, Billy had no doubt. He could not imagine a world where Pietro would not stand by his sister through thick and thin.

"That is my hope, yes. I wish to find them both, such as it is possible."

"To do what?" Because things weren't quite that easy. "To get back at them for fighting against you?"

"No." Erik sighed, and there was such loneliness in the simple sound, it made Billy ache. "I was hoping to apologize."

"Apologize for what, exactly?" He dropped his voice, but he knew Erik would hear it nevertheless. "For what you did? Or for hurting them?"

"Everything I may have done to drive them away." Erik shook his head. "I am not a young man, Billy, and I am certainly not getting any younger. The further I age, the more I am reminded that I have no legacy save for my children, and they will not even hear of me. Perhaps, if I could reconcile with them, I might leave some mark on the world."

"Sounds like a better plan than genocide, at least." Billy rubbed his temples. His headache was getting even worse. "It wouldn't be easy, anyway. In my world Erik is as clearly on the good side as seems possible for anyone in our family, and Pietro still resents him for everything."

"And Wanda?" Erik's voice was soft as well, which he was quite grateful for. "How does she see that Erik?"

"Wanda spent a long time staying away from pretty much everyone." Unless one counted Doom. "She's only recently started to rejoin the world, and Erik isn't around that much. And, well. She said she wanted to figure out her future before focusing on the family stuff." He wondered how she was doing with that. Surely his old self would let him know if things were getting entirely out of hand.

"I see." Erik stepped away from him, looking out of the window. "I would not be surprised if my own children felt similarly about me."

"You can't know until you try." Billy had no idea why he even cared, but he did want Erik to understand that. "You haven't done anything ever since your last battle with them; that's got to count for something. And while it's probably not enough, you could at least try to do something to make it all up to them."

"Oh, I would be happy to try, were I given the chance," Erik replied with a wry tone. "However, considering that I do not even know where to find them, it seems quite difficult to get started on that."

Billy looked at him for a while, trying to judge his sincerity. It was hard, looking at such an inexpressive face, but then he did have an advantage. Tommy was quite open about his anger and annoyance, even his amusement, but the more vulnerable feelings he tended to hide as best as he could. Billy had learned to read them to a degree, not quite as well as Kate, but well enough. And, as it happened, the same telltale signs appeared to apply for Erik as well. "You know," he said, "I might be able to help you."

"And how is that?" Erik raised his eyebrows. "You already said your files contain no information for me."

"That is true enough." Billy nodded, just a little, nothing that might aggravate his headache. "However, that's not the only way I could get you information."

"Tell me." And all of a sudden Erik was there, right beside his bed, staring down at him with a thunderous expression. "What do you know? How can you help me?"

Billy was not too embarrassed to admit that he yelped, just a bit, flinching back. That, of course, made both his head and the wound hurt even worse, and he very carefully lowered himself back on the bed. "I can't," he admitted. "Not right now. It's -- I need to rest." And probably do something else. "But -- I promise, I can help you. If you do have good intentions, I can and will help you find your Pietro and Wanda."

Erik looked at him for a moment with an inscrutable expression, then nodded slowly. "Very well. I will let you rest for now."

"Thanks." Billy put an arm over his eyes, shielding them from the light. Think dark, non-achey thoughts, head. No reason to get worse. "However, after we find them, it's up to you. I don't know them, not these versions of them, anyway. I can't convince them for you."

"I don't expect you to." Erik moved further away, now. "I never expected you to, even when I came to my original conclusions. This is my battle, not yours, and while I was hoping for a guide, I do not need a champion. Rather, I quite expected you to leave me on my own in that particular issue. If you were Pietro's son, you would not want to make things any easier for me in that regard."

"Just so you know, though," Billy murmured, trying to get the words clear enough even though he just wanted everything to be quiet right now, "if you go back on your word and try to hurt them instead, I will stop you. And I will not care what means I have to use." Which, yes, was a lie, but only partly. He would stop Erik from harming Pietro and Wanda, no matter what he had to do, and his guilt afterwards had no bearing on that fact.

For a moment there was silence, and he wondered if Erik had left already, or if he had simply not heard his words. Then, however, there was a small chuckle, one without humor to it. "Yes," said Erik, and his voice was so very familiar. "I rather expected that as well."

Then there was silence, at last, and perhaps with a moment of it he could escape the ache to sleep.

*

It was little surprise that Cairo near noon was hot. Kate would have been quite surprised if it hadn't been, and perhaps doubted their identification of their location. As it was, she was absolutely sweltering in her long-sleeved top and long trousers. Even so, they were remarkably more comfortable than the looks she had been given constantly until they had stepped into a store to get her something to wear in place of her tight mission clothes.

The good thing was, they had managed to avoid being whisked away again. Now that they had some idea of how things worked, Phil was clearly making an effort to stay calm. They just had to spend some time around the city until they could meet up with a local SHIELD contact who was supposed to be coming to their rescue, after which they could get started on getting home at last.

Oh, she could not wait to get home. So what if that was also going to involve some very interesting conversations about their very own specimen of living dead. That, she could handle, especially since Clint appeared to be very convinced this was indeed his Phil. And with Billy's magic involved, well, it was not exactly outside the realm of possibility. It was hard to call it impossible when she knew two of her teammates were reincarnations and she was basically Kate 2.0.

Of course, before they could get home, they had to survive quite a lot of time away from there. Even if they could get in touch with the SHIELD contact right away, it'd still be a moment before they could get Phil to the States without problems, what with his legal identity being kind of dead. She probably could have called Tommy to come and pick them each up one by one, but that might have been too much of a shock to Phil, and then they would have lost him again. Given that they didn't even have a guarantee he would reappear in an inhabited area of the Earth, that was not a risk they were willing to take.

And now, she was hot, and somewhat tired, and surrounded by people she didn't know, and really this wasn't one of her favorite days ever, but she'd make do. Just seeing the occasional dopey smile on Clint's face sometimes when he thought Kate didn't notice was enough to make her pull through.

As she heard a commotion from behind, Kate turned to look. Clint was grasping the arm of a small child, one who was struggling to get away from his firm grip. A small girl, judging by the long, thick hair, a shock of white against her dark skin. There was something familiar about her features, something that had nothing to do with the way her hair made Kate wish for Tommy to be there.

"Let me go!" the girl shouted with a thick accent. "I didn't do anything!"

"Oh, I'm sure you didn't." People on the street were giving them sideways glances, but besides moving a step farther, nobody did anything. A little street urchin caught in the act was not going to have anyone to defend her. "Which is why I'm sure you're just about to return the wallet I was about to drop on the street."

"Yeah!" She grudgingly handed back his wallet. "You should be thanking me!" At least she had guts. Guts, and sparking eyes so light, they seemed almost white.

"Okay, kid, next time, make sure you don't pick the wrong pocket," Clint said. "If I were a meaner man, you'd soon be short an arm."

"Wait," Kate hurried to say as he seemed to be about to let her go. It couldn't have been… "Ororo?"

The child stopped in her struggling for a moment, looking at her with wide, light eyes. "Yes?"

"Ororo?" Clint let her go, now, but the girl didn't run away. "Ororo Munroe?"

Ororo looked at her with wary eyes. "Who are you?"

"I — I knew your parents." It was close enough. The Ororo she had known had been more than old enough to be this child's mother.

"My parents are gone." The grim look on her face made it clear that regardless of whether she understood exactly what had happened, she knew it was permanent.

"I know. I'm so sorry." Kate swallowed, kneeling down to get on the child's level. "Would you like to come with us?"

"Why?" The child gave her a sharp, suspicious look. Kate supposed she couldn't blame her. Living on the street would not a naive child make.

"As I said, I knew your parents. And… I know people who can do what you can do."

"Really?" Ororo's eyes widened again. "What can they do?"

Kate hesitated only for a moment. She was absolutely certain this was, indeed, a young Storm. "Lightning."

"Kate?" Clint stepped closer, a frown on his face. "You know the kid?"

"Yes. I — yes, I do, in a way." Kate glanced up at him and Phil, then back at Ororo. "What do you say? You don't have to stay, but we'll get you some food. And maybe new clothes?" Her old ones seemed rather threadbare. And by the time that had been accomplished, maybe she would trust them enough to stay.

"Why?" And again that question, so mistrustful and heart-breaking.

"We need help." Phil was suddenly next to her, down on one knee, giving the child a serious look. "There's someone we have to find, but we're new to the city. If you can help us find them, we'll give you a proper reward."

For a moment Ororo looked from each of them to the other, a frown still on her little face. Then, she nodded slowly. "Who do you need?"

Phil picked her up without trouble, talking to her in a soft tone, looking for all the world like an indulgent father though Kate rather doubted his words were mere sweet nonsense. She stood up as well, settling into a step beside Clint behind the two.

"So you actually know her?" Clint murmured. "From — from before?"

"The Ororo I knew was an adult," Kate replied. "But I'm certain it's her. And from what little I know, a street kid in Cairo is a perfectly reasonable place for her to be, if she is indeed this young."

"And based on what you said, the ages are already skewed between the two worlds." Clint nodded slowly. "I take it you're not about to leave her behind." He didn't bother to make it into a question.

"Yeah, that's not happening." Kate shook her head. "I know I can't help all the poor kids of Cairo, but I'm not going to leave her here. Not just because I know her, either. She — her powers will likely not win her any friends."

"Duly noted." Another nod. "Now, with any luck, Phil will convince her to find the SHIELD contact we were already heading to meet, and in return for that she might actually accept some help."

"And the longer she sticks with us, the more chances we have to convince her we're the good guys." Kate sighed. "I wish it were easier."

"Few things worth doing are." Clint patted her shoulder. "Now, come on. Let's see if we can derail the two sniffer dogs into an ice cream shop somewhere. I'd rather like not to be the only one melting."

And, this? This was why she was quite happy to be Hawkeye, too.

*

The view of the New York skyline that opened up from the pool was breathtaking.

The pool came almost up to the windows, close enough that Teddy could have touched the glass if he reached out his arm. The glass itself was clear enough to be almost invisible during the day; even now, it was only the faint reflection of himself in the semi-dark room that reminded him there was a barrier between him and the rest of the city. During the summer Tony sometimes actually opened some of the windows, along with very firm reminders for nobody to fall down because there was no indignity that could have matched the shame of ending up as a near-naked splatter on the sidewalk. Teddy usually had to do his best not to point out exactly how few of the team members were likely to ever reach the ground with any force that would be lethal to them. It wasn't like Tony didn't know that, anyway.

He didn't often really get to enjoy the view, though. When he came to the pool it was usually with others, spending their time splashing around and racing each other, or just enjoying a lazy afternoon in the warm water. Right now, though, the pool room was silent save for his own breathing and the faint hum of the air conditioning, with nothing to distract from the darkening silhouette of the city before him.

Of course, that was when he heard the door open.

"Oh, sorry. Didn't think anyone would be here so late." Darcy's voice. "You want some time to sulk in solitude? Because I can totally just go away if you'd rather be alone."

"That's fine." Teddy turned to look at her, offering a weak smile. "I just can't promise to be very good company."

"Yeah, I figured. Not like I can blame you, anyway." Darcy walked closer, setting her towel and flip-flops by the edge of the pool, folding her glasses on top of everything else before jumping in. The splash sent a small wave down the pool, water crashing against Teddy's scales without much impact. "So, if you're not sulking, you got any special reason to be here?" she asked as soon as her head was above the surface again.

"Just thinking, I guess." Teddy sighed. "Having trouble sleeping, if you can imagine that. Bruce helped me tire out last night enough that I could actually get to sleep, but I don't want to bother him and the other guy again."

"So you decided to enjoy the silence and the water." Darcy nodded sagely. "Any reason you're all big and scaly?"

"Besides the fact I rather wish there was something or someone I could just punch to make everything all right again?" Teddy's lips twitched. "Just felt like it, I guess. It's... well. Kind of distancing myself? Except it's not really working."

"Ah, right, feeble human emotions and all that." It could have been insulting, but she clearly did not intend it as such. "So is it true you're part lizard?"

"I see you got your description of Skrulls from Tommy." He managed a faint chuckle. "Well, I'm half Skrull, who were technically evolved from reptilian ancestors, so I guess it's close enough. You know, scales, laying eggs, all that. Sure, most people think the shapeshifting is the more notable part of my heritage, but clearly that is unimportant to you."

Darcy waved her hand. "Shapeshifting can happen by magic," she pointed out. "It's the lizard ancestors that I find more unique by far. Well, that and the space prince thing, but then Thor's also a space prince and I pulled a taser on him, so that alone isn't so very special."

"Well, I'd recommend you don't try that. I don't think it would do much for me, but it'd be a very bad idea to try that while we're both in the water."

"A very good point. It's quite clear why the other resident scientist claimed you as his. Well, that and the whole big and green thing." Darcy started lazily swimming across the pool, her arms drawing slow arcs through the shadows. "Damn, I'm exhausted."

Teddy made a sympathetic noise. "Long day?"

"You bet. Wrangling Pepper's schedule into submission can be taxing on the best of days; trying to do it while also determining how much of that shit can be canceled or postponed without causing too much trouble gives me a headache just thinking about it. And I can't exactly tell anyone she's busy because her stepson went missing, so then I have to make sure nobody's too offended by the whole deal, and gah. I thought this job would be fun."

"I've been given the impression even the best jobs have their drawbacks sometimes." Teddy sighed. "I just wish Billy and Kate both got home so we could forget about all this nonsense."

Darcy made a face. "Right, sorry, didn't mean to bring that up so directly. See? This is why it's no good for me to be this tired. I should probably just go to bed before I fall asleep right here in the water."

"I promise to fish you out if that happens."

"Ah, ever the knight in shining armor. Green armor? Whatever." Darcy slowed down, floating along in the water. "And hey, we've already located Kate. I'm sure we'll find Billy soon enough."

"Kate and her escorts, as I hear it." Teddy leaned back against the edge of the pool. "Is it true Billy actually resurrected someone from the scepter?" Which, wow. That certainly had been an important project.

"Far as we can tell, yeah. Both Clint and Tony appear happy with the answers he's giving, so it does seem he's the right guy. Of course, we can't be absolutely sure until he gets over here with them so we can do tests and stuff, but that's the current working theory." Darcy turned toward his general direction. Teddy wondered exactly how much she could see without her glasses in the almost-dark. "Did you know he could do that?"

"Well, I didn't exactly expect it, but it's not too surprising. I mean, he copied us, so he's made bodies before, and his first incarnation was made up of magic. From what I've heard the tricky part is the soul, and if that was inside the scepter, I don't see any reason why he couldn't have done that." He sighed, again, but this time the tone of it was one of wonder rather than constant ache. "But then, he never ceases to surprise me."

"You really love him." She didn't bother to make it into a question. Smart woman. "Do you mind if I ask how serious the two of you are? I mean, I know you're engaged and everything, but I also know some people don't think that's very significant nowadays."

"I want to spend the rest of my life with him." And would, as soon as Billy got back home. "I'll admit my proposal wasn't exactly planned, more like I said something related by chance and when Billy caught onto it I turned it into a proposal, but I meant it then, and I mean it now." He lifted his hand up to the only ring on either of his ears with a stone on it, blue and pulsing with the distant rhythm of Billy's heartbeat in the darkness, like a little spark. "He's helped me through some of the worst times in my life, and stood by me no matter what. We really do plan to get married eventually, and figure out a way to have babies or hatchlings or whatever, and then stick together and become that insufferable couple who's always sappy about everything."

"Wow. I'm almost jealous." Darcy sighed. "I did have this one guy back in London, but that was more of a, you know, adrenaline-fuelled crush. Fortunately we figured out pretty soon we weren't meant to be outside the context of alien attacks and raving mad demigods, so we split pretty amicably when Jane dragged me back here with her."

"That's still better than a bad break-up." Teddy glanced out of the window into the dark silhouette dotted with countless lights. "We kind of came out to his original parents by accident, you know. We were actually wondering how to tell them that we were superheroes, they overheard and thought it was about us being a couple, and told us it was all fine and asked me how I take my eggs." The Kaplans. They were such great people, and it was still sometimes hard to understand he probably wouldn't ever see them again. Of course it was even worse for Billy, but that didn't stop Teddy from missing them as well.

And his mother. He would always miss his mother.

"I'm sorry." Darcy paused, then hurried to add, "I mean, I'm not sorry they were great about that, wow, that'd be a totally asshole thing to say. No, I meant that I'm sorry you don't have them around anymore."

"We've learned to deal with it." Teddy shook his head. "Tommy at least only misses Billy's folks and he won't even admit that; as far as his own parents are concerned he's probably just happy not to have to deal with them anymore. Me, well, my mother was already dead when we came here. Sure, it was hard, leaving the Kaplans behind, but at least they're still alive back there somewhere."

"And how does Billy cope with that?"

"He's working on it." Teddy rubbed a hand over his face. It was wet and cold, but that kind of helped him focus for a moment. "It's a messy situation. I know he sometimes feels guilty for missing them when they're at least still alive, even though I'd never blame him for it, since he can't have them back any more than I can have my mom back. And, well, the team is helping. Of course they'll never be the same as our original parents, but Tony's actually acting like a father. And Bruce and Clint, too, of course, but Tony's the one I've been really surprised about."

"Well, he does have his bad moments, too. Did you know he still tries to get Pepper to declare which one is her favorite stepson? I know he means it as a joke, but it's getting old."

"It's not that bad. Tommy's worse half the time, and Billy's not exactly a saint, either. I mean, I love him, but sometimes he gets on my nerves so bad, I feel like I could just shake him." Not that he ever would, no matter how annoyed he got. He had sworn to himself never to let Billy come to harm because of him, and that was one vow he was determined to keep.

"Really? I wouldn't have thought you're capable of getting angry. I mean, aside from when you're taking down bad guys. You're like calmness incarnate or something. Which I'm pretty sure can be called ironic, you know, since you're known as the Hulk's son and everything."

"Bruce's son, and yes, there's a difference. But, yeah, I get angry sometimes, too. I just learned very young not to let it out, what with the whole super strength thing and all."

"See? That's why everyone thinks you're too nice to exist. When regular people realize they're stronger than everyone around them, they turn into bullies. You turn into the biggest puppy ever and get loved by everyone."

"I wasn't always well-liked, you know." Not that most of his so-called friends had been friendly at all, anyway, not until the team. "I used to be the little runty kid that nobody noticed. Got pushed around a bit, too, though nothing too bad." Nothing anywhere near as bad as what Billy had been through. "Then I used my powers to grow bigger and stronger and got on the basketball team, and then I turned to the dark side and used them to sneak into places I shouldn't have gone so I could impress this guy I had a crush on."

"I'm assuming that guy wasn't Billy."

"No. He was... well. I thought he was my friend, but I then realized he was just using me for his own ends. Also, he wanted to loot the Avengers Mansion. That was the point when I walked away, and I haven't regretted it one bit." He never would regret it.

"But see, that just goes to show you're, like, a saint. St. Bernhard, maybe? That's the goodness and the puppy all in one." Darcy nodded decisively, as though that had been the end of that discussion. "Yup, St. Bernhard. That's it. I'm sure Tony could find you one of those little barrels to strap under your chin."

"Not sure I see the point in that. Alcohol doesn't do much of anything for me." Teddy chuckled, and this time he managed to put some actual humor in it. "Though I'll be sure to run the idea of wearing a collar by Billy when he gets back." Because Billy had to get back. He refused to accept anything else as even a remote possibility.

"Dude, I'll buy you a collar to celebrate when he gets back. You know, as long as I will never need to know what you do with it. Not because I'm judging or anything, but because I kind of need to be able to look your mother-in-law in the eye to do my job."

"She's not my mother-in-law yet." Wouldn't technically ever be, as he rather doubted Tony would be marrying Pepper and leaving Steve to the side, but that was beside the point. "But I'll forgive you for that prudishness."

"Please, I'm the farthest thing from a prude you'll find this side of Tony's bedroom. Did I, or did I not, just offer to buy you a collar to wear for your boyfriend?" Darcy splashed some water in his direction. "And please, like I care whether you've signed the papers, you're good as married anyway. The only effect it's going to have on me is whether I get a chance to dance and drink myself silly at your wedding."

"We'll try to make that happen." But first, Billy had to come home.

"You'd better." Darcy started to lazily swim toward the ladder out of the pool. "I'd probably better get some sleep, it's going to be a long day again if I'm not mistaken. You should try that at some point, too."

"I'll do my best." Not that he liked the idea of going to their empty bed all alone, but he also knew he wouldn't be much use to anyone if he was too exhausted to function.

First, though, he'd just look at the darkening city for another moment.

Just a moment, until he was ready to face the empty bed.

*

Tony was frowning in his sleep.

It wasn't immediately apparent, not with the angle his face was turned, but when he shifted, Steve caught the unhappy expression clearly enough. Tony's head was resting on one of Steve's arms, the other wrapped around Pepper's smaller form, holding her close for the couple of hours she still had left to sleep before her duties called her to wake again.

Steve himself could not get to sleep. He had drifted off for a moment earlier, but then woken up back in full alert, not much rested but not needing to, not yet. His body was built for this, for extreme conditions and stress beyond reason, and whereas on a normal night he would have felt fine after four hours of sleep it seemed his system had decided to make do with one. Even so, he dared not stir, knowing there was little he could do to help even if he was out of bed and not wanting to steal away any sleep that Tony and Pepper might manage to have.

It had been hard enough convincing Tony to come to bed, requiring both Steve and Pepper speaking sense to him as much as they could. Steve knew Pepper was feeling harried, too, but she at least was thinking enough to know that she could not run herself to absolute exhaustion if she wanted to be of any use to anyone. Someone had to keep SI running, after all, and coordinate various other efforts when they were too busy to do so, and that all fell upon Pepper's slight yet strong shoulders as it always seemed to do in a crisis. It could not have been pleasant, but she bore it with more dignity than most trained soldiers Steve had seen, and while her work involved less bullets and explosions on the average day she seemed no less exhausted after a full day than a private at a boot camp. He knew damn well he could not have done her job. Tony agreed, and he had actually done it for a while, to an extent at least.

Now they were both in bed, though, both snuggling into Steve's body heat, and he was not going to stir any more than necessary. If Tony was startled from his sleep and decided he was properly awake, Steve doubted he could get him back to bed no matter how badly he might have needed it. There were different levels of stubbornness, and the determined mode Tony entered when someone near to him needed him was more or less impenetrable.

Steve wasn't sure if he should have worried or felt touched, seeing all that concern and fear reflecting on Tony's face even in his sleep. Whatever he might have claimed on occasion, it was clear enough Tony cared for his adopted sons, so to have one of them missing and in potential danger was obviously going to take its toll. Of course Steve was worried, too, as was Pepper, the whole team was, but he doubted any of them felt it quite as keenly as Tony did.

Steve thought of what little he had heard of Tony's little misadventure in Afghanistan, of the attack and the dead soldiers and the injury and the three months in a cave, and had to suppress a shiver. It was something of a miracle that Tony could function, knowing one of his boys might have been in a similar situation. They knew Billy had been injured, in any case, and he had disappeared after that, and since he hadn't returned home they could only assume he was being held against his will. And Kate, disappearing from their very home, leaving them without answers and Tommy ready to burst through walls if that might bring him any closer to her. And even though they knew where she was, now, that didn't mean the situation was any better.

Steve wondered if Tommy was getting any rest. He certainly hoped so. The boy burned through incredible amounts of energy on an ordinary day, and all this worry could not have done anything good. Certainly not since he seemed to have taken to Tony's habit of nervous action whenever he felt worried or threatened. With both his brother and his girlfriend gone, it was a wonder he had not yet gone off with the full intention of scouring every last inch of Earth until he had brought them both home.

Pepper shifted, her hand sliding along Steve's chest where it was curled close to her face, and he adjusted his arm around her. She was not frowning but there was tension there, the kind that should not have remained in sleep. It was wrong, all of this was wrong, yet he could not fix any of this, not now. For all that he was the super soldier that everyone had hoped for, there was nothing he could do to bring their missing family back home.

It would have been so much easier if there had been someone to punch, someone shooting at him with bullets he could deflect, enemy armies advancing in a pattern he could plan to meet and counter. However, there was no such relief for him. All he had was uncertainty and lack of information, mystery upon another, and the tentative assumption that some kind of magic was involved in all of this.

Steve had been brought up religious, and for all that he had forgotten some of it during the worse years of his life, well, it was said war had a habit of drawing a prayer out of even the most dubious heart. For all that he had never stopped trusting in the existence of a higher power even with all the atrocities he had faced, he could admit he had sometimes been more lax in his attentions towards that power. A prayer might make its way out when you were ducking away from a grenade blast or hoping for the shots to miss, but as long as you kept rushing forward, there was no time for such frivolities. And the Commandos had never stopped rushing forward, no matter what.

Now, however, he was lying still in his bed, in their bed, holding the two people he loved more than anything else in the world, and while he could not voice his thoughts for fear of stirring them from their slumber he found his lips moving as of their own accord, whispering a silent prayer to the God that had somehow allowed him to survive all his hardships to this day.

It was silly, perhaps, praying to his God when he was not sure Kate had any attachment to Him and knew for a fact Billy didn't, but at the moment it was all he could do. It was not a punch or a shot, nothing that would let him see the immediate effect, but it tugged at the little part of his mind that still wondered if perhaps praying hard enough might have brought his mother back, or at least enough for them to eat their fill.

There was no answer, of course there was no answer, but as Pepper's alarm cut through the darkness he realized he had managed to doze off for a moment, which he supposed was enough of a result in itself.

Now, he just needed to give Him a busy pair of hands with which to hopefully give His help.

If nothing else, it might keep his thoughts away from the worst case scenario.


	6. Cold Comforts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thor talks with Tommy, and Billy finally gets in touch with everyone. Of course, nobody likes his plan, but they agree to go along with it anyway. But then, it's probably a good thing nobody expected the meeting with Erik to go without a hitch...

"Tommy." Thor walked up to the roof, relieved to find the curled up form seated at the edge. Not that it was an actual relief to see him in such a precarious position, but it was better than him having run off on his own. "We have been looking for you."

"Should have just asked JARVIS." Tommy shrugged. "Why?"

"Well, the general theory seemed to be you might have run after your Lady Kate."

"Nah. Worried or not, she's with Hawkass now. If anyone, I can trust him to keep her safe, and she'd kick my ass if I ran over there just to make she's fine. We need everyone at the ready in case something happens."

"This is true." Thor walked closer. "You seem deep in thought."

"I guess." Another shrug.

"May I inquire what about?"

"Billy." The answer was curt, only followed a moment later with, "Which shouldn't really surprise you, now that we've got Kate more or less located."

"I suppose not. He is your brother, after all."

"Close enough." Tommy didn't look his way, yet he seemed to have sensed Thor's confusion, as he added, "Oh, that's right. You still don't know the full story."

"Please, enlighten me." Because this did sound like something he should have known.

"We weren't born brothers, you know." Tommy's voice was quiet, yet clear even over the wind and the distant traffic. "Not this time."

"Whatever do you mean?" Thor blinked. "I have rare seen such resemblance from even the closest of brothers. He is your twin, is he not?"

"He is and he isn't. It's... complicated." The boy sighed, running a hand through his head. "You know we're copies, right? That Billy split us apart from our original selves and that's why we can't go back to our home?"

"I am aware of that, yes." It still seemed rather unlikely, but he was going to believe it nevertheless. "But that does not make you any less brothers."

"No. But back in our own world, it still wasn't as simple as that." Tommy drew his knees closer to his chest, looking out over the city. "Once upon a time, or so I've been told, there was a witch with her android husband," he said, his voice a flat monotone. "She wanted a child, but obviously her dear hubby couldn't give her any, so she used magic instead. And lo and behold, she got pregnant and had twins, two sons she called William and Thomas."

Thor nodded along. "That is some rather mighty magic." And yet no more astounding than the fact of their existence in this separate world. Their line was truly blessed with power.

"Yeah, well, some time after that, the twins ceased to exist." Despite the harsh words, Tommy's voice remained devoid of emotion. "So she snapped, as you do, and tried to remake the world. And once she was done making messes and left everything all fucked up, she had unknowingly remade her twins. Except this time, we weren't born to her, and we weren't twins. Little William was born to the Kaplan family, and Thomas was born to the Shepherds."

"You had separate families?"

"Yeah. And let me tell you, Billy totally lucked out there." Tommy's shoulders tensed. "His parents are -- were, whatever -- pretty much the most accepting people there are. They never had a problem with Teddy, hell, they even took me in without question. Me... my folks split, but that didn't stop them from agreeing on selling me off to some sick fucks who tried to turn me into a living weapon."

"Despicable." The word escaped him in a hiss. "That -- such creatures should not call themselves parents."

"Pretty sure they'd rather not. It very much suited them to pretend their freak of a son never existed in the first place, after all."

"But you met your brother again, then." Because that much was obvious.

"Yeah. He -- they broke me out of that hellhole, and told me if I wanted to go with them, I had to be a good guy. Pretty sure I would have killed those bastards without them there. And then everything was over, and Billy's parents took me in like that's a thing you do, and Billy started obsessing about how we might actually be Scarlet Witch's long-lost twins."

"So he had an idea of your origin?"

"Well, not immediately, but he took to the idea pretty fast and hard. And then we finally tracked her down, and it seems he was right, too. So all of a sudden he had not only his awesome parents, but one of the most powerful mutants acknowledged him as her son. Sure, she also said the same of me, but I never could accept it as easily as he did. It just didn't seem likely, that there'd be anyone willingly admitting I was related to them."

"Yet here you are, proudly calling yourself his brother."

"Yeah, I am. Have come a long way, I guess." Tommy chuckled, but there was no mirth in the sound. "And I still get jealous. Once again, he's got the perfect family. Sure, I've got Tony and everything, too, but all I can ever do is argue with Tony over design details and bicker with Hawkass. Billy's the one who gets along with everyone, the one everyone likes. Sometimes I can't help but think Tony only agreed to adopt me because it'd be weird if he claimed Billy but not his almost-clone."

"That is not true." Thor frowned. "Tony speaks very highly of you. He is very proud of your accomplishments."

"It took me a long time to even consider that I might be his brother," Tommy murmured. "And all that time I've been jealous of him, of how he always seems to get the best of everything. He's more powerful, better liked, everything. Even all my friends were his first."

"They are your friends and family, too." This was all beginning to sound awfully familiar. "You know that."

"Sure I do. And the thing is, he is my brother. My little brother, too. I may bicker with him and argue with him and give him shit every chance I get, but anyone trying to get to him had better go through me first, because no way in hell am I going to let him get hurt." His voice dropped down to a whisper, now. "Or that's what I'd like to say, but I can't keep him safe whatever I try."

"He is a grown man, though." Thor placed a careful hand on a slim shoulder. There was hidden strength there, more so than in many a man of Midgard in his age, but the speedy build made him appear almost fragile, and Thor couldn't help but take care not to harm him. "And not all threats are those that we can do battle with, however much we might desire to do so."

"I should be able to do at least something, though." Tommy lowered his gaze. "I couldn't even think of myself as his brother first, certainly not call myself that to his face. All this time I've envied him, been jealous of him, and after all that I can't even keep him safe. And even so, he says he's my brother." Another mirthless chuckle escaped him, though this one sounded more like a sob. "How the fuck have I earned that title?"

"It's not something you have to earn." It shouldn't have to be, not ever. "People are brothers by accident or circumstance, whether it be a bond of blood or one forged in battle. And once you are brothers, that is not something easily cast aside."

"I should be better at it, though." Tommy shivered, and Thor felt the tremor going through the shoulder under his hand. "If I was, maybe he would have come to me when he got hurt. Maybe he wouldn't be missing right now."

"It is useless to deal in the maybes and perhapses." Thor paused, then finally took a seat as well, close enough to offer his support without actually disturbing the boy's peace. "Do you mind if I speak of myself for a moment?"

"Like I could stop you." Nevertheless, the boy made no move to go away, which Thor took as as good an assent as he was likely to get.

"You know I had a brother." It still hurt, using the past tense about Loki. Even after everything that had happened, everything that his brother had done, he still missed him, and probably always would. There was no amount of pretty words that would change that, not as long as he was alive himself.

"Loki." Tommy nodded slowly, still not looking at him. "Yeah. I heard he tried to take over the world."

"This is true." Thor sighed. "It's... it wasn't his greatest moment."

"I'd hope not." Tommy snorted. "There a point to this?"

"My brother was quite similar to yours." Not in every way, thank goodness, but enough to draw notice. "I always was the rash one, the one rushing into things, calling down lightning to crack anything that was in my way. Loki... he thought. He used tricks and cunning and magic, thought his way around obstacles rather than pushing through them, danced around in a thousand illusions as though nothing could stop him." There had been a kind of cold beauty to it, to Loki's illusions and the way he played with them like a child might with a toy. A beauty that always came back to him in a chilling reminder when he saw William toying with his own mirages, or even Tony manipulating his schematics in the air.

"Yeah, that's similar enough." Tommy sighed. "Billy always thinks too much, though, and he's as bad about rushing into things as I am. Especially if he thinks he should sacrifice himself to keep others safe."

"Indeed." Thor paused. "After the war with the Chitauri, I thought Loki could never be capable of such a thing. That he would never place anyone else before himself, that he would not sacrifice no matter what. And I thought I was correct in that assumption."

"I'm guessing you changed your mind, then."

"I was forced to." Thor swallowed. "He... I included him in my mad scheme to save my beloved and Asgard alike. My other friends, too, but he took the hardest and most dangerous part alongside me, delving into the dark world to lead away the enemy. And then, after using his skills and his magic to help me and Jane, he was killed, just like that." He looked out into the sky, so beautiful and blue, almost like Loki's magic had been at times. "He died there in my arms, and I helpless to save him from my own folly."

"You're not the one who killed him."

"No, I was not, but that does not change the fact that he is dead." Thor shook his head. "It is a moment I could never forget, not if I lived a thousand years. I was there, right next to him, and there wasn't a thing I could do. He died because he helped me, because he defended my Lady Jane, and in that moment, I wished I could take back every last thing I had done over the years that had ever caused him hurt. Because if I had done different, if I had given him reason to trust me and join forces with me in companionship and not deceit so much earlier, he might not be dead."

"How's that work?" Tommy glanced at him at last. "If he were on your side, wouldn't he have gone with you on your mad adventure anyway?"

"Perhaps. Or perhaps he might not have felt he had so much to prove to me. He might not have tried so hard to win his rightful place beside me, when he should have always known it belonged to him and none else." And the blame for that lay upon Thor and him alone. "Of course, I can accomplish little by mere speculation. The truth of the matter is, he is gone, and no amount of regret on my part will bring him back."

"Is there a point to this?" It was clear Tommy was trying not to show his distress, but his voice cracked just a bit. Well. It would be best not to draw attention to it. Even the mightiest warriors had their weak moments.

"My point, such as it is, is that you are not a bad brother." Thor took on his best authoritative voice, the one he had thought he perfected over his years of leading warriors in battle, yet had not ever felt his own as much as it did now that he had declined the throne and the crown. "If you were, you would not worry about him as you do. You would not feel guilt over your jealousy. Yet here you are, worrying over him, wishing you could do something."

"A fat lot of good it's doing him."

"Even so. The fact remains that you are good for him. And, my young friend, I have no doubt that he knows that."

"Yeah, well, he's been all excited about the twin stuff ever since we first met." Tommy shook his head. "Doesn't mean he thinks I actually return the feelings."

"I am no mage, Tommy Tonason, nor have I ever claimed to be." That had ever been Loki's field, the one in which he excelled, yet nobody had given him his credit as Thor had ever shadowed him. "I cannot hear people's hearts, nor weave their destinies as my mother would do. But I know this, and I would have you know it." He gently turned the boy to look him properly in the eye. "Wherever your brother is, he knows you are doing everything you can to find him. It might not be much at this moment in time, but as soon as you can come to his aid, you will be there, and he knows that. Whatever arguments you two might have, he will ever trust in you to stand by his side when the worst comes to bear, and he knows you will carry him home from the battlefield should his own strength betray him."

"Except I'm not there," Tommy whispered. "I don't even know where he is."

"No. But you are there nevertheless, because you are of one heart and soul, and always will be." Thor squeezed Tommy's shoulder, gently, gently. "Never doubt your own heart, young warrior. Your worry for your brother shows it clear as day that he could not be dearer to you. Such love could never not reach his heart, of that I am certain."

"What about yours?" And wasn't that question just a spear to the heart. Never let it be said that Tony's blood shied away from the ugly truths. "Did he know you care?"

"I cannot know, and thus cannot tell you," Thor said, his tone mournful in his regret. "Yet I take solace in the knowledge that as he died, it was not cursing me, for all that I might have deserved such grief."

"I don't ever want to find out what Billy would do if he died in my arms," Tommy murmured. "Because he clearly got me into this mess, so he's not allowed to die and leave me behind."

"Well said, my young friend." Thor nodded firmly. "Now, do come inside for some sustenance. We must not let the others fret."

"Right." Tommy sighed. "Here's hoping there won't be too much fussing."

"I'm sure not." Thor grinned as he stood up. "We shall tell them you were contemplating a run over to your beloved lady, and I had to talk at length to dissuade you from such solitary folly, and I am confident they will rather leave you be than have me reprise my speech of utter conviction to show the strength of it in changing your mind."

Tommy laughed as he got to his feet as well, and while it was not the greatest laugh he had ever given, it was not quite as given to despair as before. "You know, Thor, sometimes I don't know how much of anything you say is a joke."

"Please, Tommy. When I make jest to play at the reactions I might have, why ruin it utterly by giving it away?"

"I'll just take that as a sign never to trust anything you might say." And yet there was a grin on the young face, so Thor counted this one as a victory to his goals.

He tried not to think of another face, just as pale under a lightless sun, with raven hair clinging to sweaty skin instead of white, but even as he failed, it was not as painful as it had been when the memory had been fresh. Perhaps, as enough time passed, the sting of it would be eased into nothing but a distant ache.

He would give it a century or two.

*

The sound of the cell phone seemed disproportionately loud in the empty room, cutting through the last remnants of sleep.

Teddy blinked up at the ceiling, not entirely sure he hadn't just imagined it. However, as the sound refused to go away, he sprung to his feet, looking around for his phone. He was sure he'd seen it somewhere recently, he just had to find it...

The phone was lying on the bedside table, exactly where he had left it before falling to sleep in the middle of his worried imaginings, exhausted from too little sleep and too much concern. The number on the screen was not one he recognized. Nevertheless, Teddy accepted the call, bringing the phone to his ear with a hand that only avoided shaking through a sheer force of will. "Hello?"

"Teddy?" And it was Billy, that was Billy's voice, his beloved Billy was on the phone. "Oh, thank goodness, I was starting to wonder if I'd gotten the number wrong."

"Billy." His heart constricted for a moment before he forced himself to relax. "Where are you? Are you all right? What happened?" So many questions he needed answered, even though the most important thing was simply hearing Billy's voice again.

"Calm down, Tee. I'm fine, I promise. A bit battered up, but nothing major." Billy paused, then drew a deep breath, audible even through the phone. "Actually, I'm with Erik."

"...I'm going to go ahead and assume you don't mean Jane's old science friend Erik."

"Yeah, no, afraid not." Billy sighed, just a bit. "He got me out of the battle and had a doctor stitch me up, so don't worry, he's not hurting me or anything."

Teddy frowned. "Stitch you up? I thought you said there was nothing major."

"And there isn't, not now. I had a pretty bad gash, but it's clean and closed now, so as long as I don't strain myself enough to reopen it, I'll be fine." Billy's voice was so calm, so reasonable, Teddy was tempted to simply believe him without question. Of course, he couldn't do that, not quite so easily. "Honestly, Teddy. I'm not saying I'm perfectly fine, but I will be. Promise."

"Right." It was the best he could ask for right now, anyway. Falling back on the bed, he brought his other hand up, tracing it along the earring linked to Billy. It felt warm against his fingers. "So when are you coming home?"

"That might be a little while yet." Now he sounded apologetic, and yeah, he'd better if he was saying something as stupid as that. "There's -- there's something I need to do first. Something I promised to do. It's not dangerous, though, I promise. And Erik isn't holding me captive or anything, I promised to help him of my own volition."

"Why didn't you call earlier, then?" If he wasn't being held against his will, surely he could have at least let them know sooner?

"I haven't been awake a lot, to be honest. I... I think I've locked out some of my magic or something. That's part of why I called. There's something I need from my room."

"If you mean the scepter, it was taken back to Fury." He closed his eyes, trying to focus on the image of Billy, safe and sound. "Not that there's any magic left to it."

"Really?" Billy sounded startled. "But then -- why --"

"If you mean why your magic's gone, I can answer that." Teddy swallowed. "You succeeded, Bee. You brought Agent Coulson back."

"I did?" And there was a note of wonder to his voice, as though even Billy himself was finding that unlikely. "I thought -- I thought I failed."

"Well, you didn't. You brought him back, but according to Strange some of your magic and the remnants of Loki's stuck to him, so he picked up Kate and then went to Clint and they've been hopping around the world ever since." And if he hadn't been so damn worried and relieved and everything else, he might have had the energy to feel incredibly proud of his boyfriend for succeeding in something that unlikely. "They called us yesterday from Egypt; SHIELD's going to arrange for them to come back. They were hoping to find you so you could take the magic away."

"I can do that." Easy, now, without a worry, and yeah, he believed Billy could do that simply enough, it was his magic after all. "I just need to get in the same place with them."

"Well, considering you're the one whose location is currently unknown, that's kind of up to you."

"Ah. I don't remember any of the other numbers, but if you can send Tony's number to this phone, I'll have Erik negotiate that. I don't actually know where exactly we are, though I doubt it's that far from New York."

"Okay." Teddy swallowed. "And then you're going to do this whatever thing you've promised to do for Magneto?"

"Right. It shouldn't take long, though, a couple of days at most. And once I've got my magic back, I can come home whenever I want, so you'll know I won't be stuck with him or anything."

"You're sure about this." He didn't bother to make it a question. Billy did sometimes act before thinking, but even he wouldn't have done something so worrisome without giving it any consideration. Not if he'd actually taken the time to call Teddy about it.

"I am. I'm sorry, Tee, I'd really like to come home already, too, but... I need to do this. It's safe and simple, but it's something only I can do, and once it's been taken care of I'll be home."

"Just don't forget to come back." The words felt thick in his throat, lagging behind his thoughts. "I need you to come back."

"I know, Tee." Billy's voice softened, just a bit. "I'll always come back, I promise."

"I know." At least he wished he had known, could have been sure. "I love you, Billy."

"I love you, too." After that, there was silence for a moment, then the line went dead.

Teddy took another deep breath before opening his eyes, looking up at the ceiling. "JARVIS?" he asked, his voice soft. "Did you get the number that just called me?"

"Indeed I did, Master Teddy." JARVIS's voice was perhaps a touch gentler than usual.

"Send Tony's contact info to that number, please. And -- where is Tony? And Cap? I need to tell them something." Yes, his cell phone's screen informed him the time was just past seven in the morning, but he doubted they would be actually asleep at this hour, anyway.

"I believe they are currently in Sir's workshop." See? He wasn't the only one unable to sleep in at such a time.

"Right. Thanks." He stuck the cell phone into his pocket, then got out of the bed. Time to stop feeling sorry for himself and get the others moving.

The sooner this whole fiasco was over with, the sooner Billy would be home.

He just had to focus on believing that.

*

Someone was sitting on his chest.

This was the first fact Clint's senses managed to filter to his brain from the land of wakefulness as he struggled out of sleep. Blinking, he looked up, finding a very satisfied-looking woman perched on top of him.

"Nat." He gave an exaggerated yawn. "I know you've been dreaming of getting on top of me for a while now, but I'm not sure this is the correct approach."

"You should be ashamed of yourself." She snorted. "You'd be dead by now if I was hostile."

"Unless I remember last night's events very wrong, I'm currently in a SHIELD safehouse, with Phil and Hawkeye lite in the same building," Clint pointed out. "And they happen to be awake, seeing as I was taking a nap instead of an actual night's sleep, so I should be able to trust them to watch my back. If I was dead, it wouldn't be just me that ought to be ashamed."

"Even so. You should know that I expect you to keep yourself alive instead of relying on others. If something happened to them, where would you be?"

"If something happened to them, I'd be busy chasing someone down for a bout of very violent revenge." He turned his head to look to the side instead of up at Natasha, and found nobody else in the room. "Where are they, anyway? And come to think of it, why are you here?"

"They are currently having tea, I believe. Wouldn't have thought Coulson the type to play tea party with little children, but then he is very adaptable, and at the moment our highest priority is keeping everyone calm and collected until we can get you back to States." Finally she stood, allowing him to sit up. "And I'm here because they needed someone high-ranking enough to escort you and I happened to be the closest suitable operative, given that I had to clean up your little mess of a mission. That and I presume Fury wanted me to give my own evaluation as to the genuininess of this particular Agent Coulson."

"Right." He got out of bed, looking around until he spotted the bag that held his bow and quiver. Even though this was as safe a location as he was likely to find, he did feel rather naked without them at hand.. "Sorry about that, by the way. I'd have done it myself, but the circumstances conspired against me."

"So I've come to understand." Natasha crossed her arms over her chest. "For what it's worth, I have found no reason to doubt this Coulson's identity. He certainly seems privy to certain bits of information I know I haven't ever divulged to any would-be impostors."

"Yeah, I've noticed the same." And with two days of travelling around the globe, he'd had plenty of time to ask questions. "So the working theory is that Billy brought him back, right?"

"That is what I hear." Natasha waited until he had grabbed his weapon, then turned to walk towards the door, not waiting to see if he would follow. "I've got some more information regarding that, but I should probably wait until the rest are there as well."

"Right." Which undoubtedly meant this was something important, if she did want everyone to hear. And that in turn meant there would be no use in asking more questions before everyone was gathered together.

They did, in fact, find Phil and the girls having tea. There was a local SHIELD agent standing in the corner, doubtlessly trying to be as inobtrusive as possible, while Kate and Phil carried on a light conversation with little Ororo over their cups of tea. As Natasha and Clint entered, though, everyone turned to look at them.

"I see you have woken up as well." Phil's lips twitched, just a bit. "I hope she wasn't too unpleasant in her methods of waking you."

"Nah, she just sat on me. Which I know has made me the envy of many a man." He gave Phil a filthy grin, gaining only a raised eyebrow in response. Ah, this truly was Phil. "What did she do to you, then? Drop out of the ceiling and demand a password?"

"Nothing much. In fact, she had Kate come to me and inform me that she was waiting in another room."

"I did get told that avoiding shocks would be wise," Natasha said smoothly, claiming one of the empty chairs left around the table. "So I thought it would be the best to avoid any surprises."

"That's wise, I guess." Clint took the last seat, right next to Phil, because obviously this was his lucky day. "So, we're getting home?"

"With a little detour at first." Natasha nodded. "Stark's sending the Quinjet, so we'll be over the Atlantic in six hours or so. Once we get there, though, there's going to be one more stop before heading back to the Tower."

"Oh?" Phil frowned. "Detour where, exactly?"

"To see Billy." At their surprised looks, Natasha shrugged. "He apparently called home early this morning New York time, which would have been about an hour ago. He has some kind of business to finish before he's coming home, but he agreed to meet up with you and handle the magic problem before that."

"Great." Clint breathed in relief. "So we can stop worrying about sudden teleports."

"Indeed." Natasha glanced at them. "I don't suppose you have a lot of things to pack, so we're heading to the airport in fifteen minutes. The jet should be there by the time we get there, and we'll be leaving right away." She pulled something out of her pocket, dropping four almost identical objects on the table. "Your passports. We were in kind of a hurry so they'll pass only a superficial check, though then we'll have SHIELD people at both airports so you don't have to worry about any further inspection."

"Thank you." Phil looked through the pile until he located the one under his own name, then went on to hand each of them theirs. Ororo looked at the document with some wonder, and Clint was almost tempted to do the same. At least with them, SHIELD would have had old photos to use. He wasn't entirely sure when they had gotten Ororo's picture, though it had to have happened after they located the safehouse the night before. "I suppose we'd better finish our tea, then."

"Right." Kate nodded. "And then we'll head home."

Home. Back to the Tower, where they belonged, except this time they were bringing more people along.

God, Clint wasn't sure he could ever thank Billy enough for this.

*

"I don't like this."

"I don't think any of us like this, Cap." Tony was frowning at something on his computer screen, refusing to look at him. "However, it's not our call to make."

"And why not?" It certainly seemed like one they should have made, if they were even trying to pretend to have some kind of a parental responsibility. "We should get him home, safe and sound."

"Except he thinks there's something more important for him to do. And whether we like it or not, that is his decision." Tony tapped a few keys, though the frown wasn't going anywhere. "He is technically speaking an adult, you know."

"Yes. An adult who is injured and has spent the last three days held by a known terrorist and unable to contact home. That doesn't sound like the ideal circumstances for letting him make any further calls regarding his situation."

"See, the tricky part is, people do have the right to make their own choices even when we disagree with said choices. God knows that if someone had vetoed all of my decisions that were objectively bad for me, my life would have been rather different, never mind all the ones that had the potential to go wrong." Tony shook his head. "We're worried about him, yes, but we still have to have some faith in him. Or would you say this is unsafe for him to do if he was home, safe and sound, and told us he wanted to go off on some mysterious errand?"

"At least I'd ask what it is he wants to do." Surely that at least was reasonable.

"And if it wasn't something you agreed with, you'd do what? Lock him up in his room?"

"No! Just -- I'd try to get him to change his mind. Have someone go with him, at least."

"Except chances are, this is the safest option for all involved." Tony sighed. "Once he has the rest of his magic back, he can get himself out whenever he wants, and we know he can protect himself against any threat. More people would just mean someone else for him to protect or get out of harm's way if it comes to that. And besides, according to Billy whatever it is he wants to do is perfectly safe."

"Whatever it is he wants to do involves dealing with an international terrorist."

"Even so." Tony finally looked at him, his eyes tired but determined. "Billy trusts him. Why, I'm not sure, but he thinks this guy is someone he can trust not to harm him, and that's the best information we have at the moment."

"So that's it? We let him run off to who knows where, just because he says so?"

"Yes. Because he's an adult man, and as such he gets to make his own decisions. We don't need to like it, but we're going to stand back and respect his decisions, stupid or not, and if he needs help we'll be ready to rush in to rescue him and if he doesn't we'll be welcoming him home. Because it's either that or locking him up, and frankly, I don't think that's in any way preferable even if we ignore the part where it's just plain impossible."

"I didn't say we should lock him up." Just... convince him to change his mind, perhaps.

"I know you didn't. However, that's really our only realistic option, and I'm not about to try it." Tony leaned back in his seat, reaching out a hand to touch Steve's arm. "If Teddy can step back and let him do what he wants, I think the rest of us should be able to hold back as well."

"Right." Steve swallowed. "I... is there anything I can do?" Anything besides worrying and fretting?

"You could call Pepper and tell her the good news, since she was already out by the time Billy called." Tony gave him a faint smile. "Filtered, of course. Tell her that Billy's fine and safe and will be home in a couple of days, and Kate's bunch will be home tonight at latest, and everyone's going to be just fine in the end."

"Right." He paused for a moment, then leaned forward to place a brief kiss on Tony's lips. "Just so you know," he said, "the next time you choose to run off on an objectively bad idea of an adventure, I'm coming with you."

"Oh, my sweet cereal bowl, I would expect nothing less." And somehow, that brought a smile to Steve's lips, however faint and strained.

Call Pepper. Tell her only the good parts, which wasn't lying, not quite. If Teddy believed Billy would be fine, then really they didn't have any right to believe otherwise, given that Teddy obviously had both the most information about the situation and the most to lose if he was wrong.

Steve, for his part, would just make sure everything was ready for a rescue operation if need be.

*

His grandson was shaving.

Yes, he was well aware that from a technical standpoint, he did not share a drop of blood with Billy Stark. They were not even from the same world, if even a word of what he'd been told was true. However, the fact remained that here was a young man who looked so much like a younger Pietro it caused an almost physical pain deep in his chest, standing before a mirror to shave the stubble that had grown over the past few days, and regardless of his true origin Erik couldn't help but be painfully aware of his lack of knowledge about the simplest facts of this young man's life.

Billy glanced at him through his reflection. "Something the matter?"

"No, nothing. I was simply in my thoughts." He nodded toward Billy. "You look a lot like Pietro, that's all."

"So I've been told. Though obviously Tommy looks much more like him, having the right colors and everything." Billy glanced at the mirror before rinsing off the razor, then washed away the last remnants of shaving cream from his face. "There. I almost feel human again." He patted his face dry, looking at his reflection with some approval.

"Sometimes being presentable makes all the difference." He certainly knew that from intense experience. He had not always had the luxury of taking care of his appearance to any appreciable extent.

"And it makes it less likely that the others would suddenly change their minds about letting me remain with you." Billy ran a hand through his hair, then frowned down at himself, adjusting a wrinkle of the shirt Erik had found for him in place of his ruined costume, smoothing it out. "We'll just have to hope the bandages aren't too obvious through this."

"Are you sure the injury won't give you too much trouble?" Yes, he'd had an actual doctor sew it up, and followed the care instructions, but that didn't mean Billy was actually fit to be out of bed just yet.

"It's not like we can actually wait. And I think it will be fine as long as I don't strain myself too much physically." Billy squared his shoulders, looking his reflection in the eye. "Much though I hate to say this, I've got some experience in hiding that I happen to be in pain."

"Now why am I not too surprised?" Erik noticed him glancing down at a simple ring in his hand. The green gemstone set into it seemed to emit a faint light, fading in and out in a steady pulse. "Is that your engagement ring?"

"Yeah." Billy fiddled with it for a moment, eyes fixed on it. "It's linked to Teddy with a pretty simple spell. The light glows in time with his heartbeat. That way, I know how he is, at least somewhat." The way he caressed the side of the ring was as gentle as though he had been touching his lover instead. "Teddy's got one that's linked to me in turn. That's how they knew I wasn't dead, at least, even though they didn't know where I'd gone off to."

That had to have been something of a comfort at least. "He doesn't wear a ring, though." He had noticed as much from the publicity photos, though hadn't thought very much on it.

"He can't." Billy gave a small shrug, though there was a faint smile on his face. "He changes size so much when he morphs, anything that would fit one of his forms would be either far too small or far too large for the other. He's got an earring instead."

"So why don't you wear an earring as well?" Erik raised his eyebrows. "I have been under the impression that most couples would prefer to match in such matters."

"Let's just say I've got certain past experiences that don't make me particularly eager to have anything metallic stuck through my ears." Billy didn't elaborate, but his words prompted Erik to step closer for a better look. There were some faint marks on his ears, presumably scars from having something forced through them. He supposed he couldn't fault the boy for holding some aversion to keeping something there on a more permanent basis.

"Fair enough." Erik shrugged, stepping back again to allow Billy to exit the small bathroom before following him out. "You should eat something. We're heading out in half an hour to meet them at the agreed time." And from what he had understood, this would require some energy from Billy.

"Mmm, that'd probably be good. They won't be very confident about my choice if I faint in the middle of everything." Billy headed towards the kitchen, and though he did look much better now that he was clean and wearing proper clothes, his movements were still somewhat ginger, making Erik wonder just how much the wound on his side was bothering him. It was healing somewhat better than he had expected, likely thanks to the boy's magic, but that didn't mean it wouldn't give him trouble. This was the first time he had actually made it out of bed without any help.

"Precisely my point. I would so hate to have to either run or ruin my good streak of not fighting the forces of the good and righteous, as defined by the current authorities." Apparently the wry tone of his words carried over, as Billy chuckled. Then, however, the boy glanced at him with a more serious expression.

"Just a fair warning, so it won't come as a surprise later." Billy waited until he had nodded before he went on. "Even after I get my magic back, I probably can't take you to Pietro right away. The injury's sapping my strength, and it will be difficult enough just to get us both out of there. I'll probably have to wait until tomorrow before attempting the locating spell."

"I'm fine with that." He nodded again. "I've waited far more years than I care to count. One day won't make much of a difference."

"Right. I've done something like this before, to find Wanda in fact, but even that didn't bring us directly to her actual location and I wasn't recovering from a life-threatening injury then. I'd rather give this the best chance of success, and giving my magic a night's sleep to realign itself should be a big step into that direction."

Magic. The boy was speaking of magic, and thought nothing of it. And yes, Erik had always known mutations could bring forth true miracles in the hands of those who knew how to use their powers, knew just what he could do with his own abilities if necessary, but this was a yet different level of power, twisting and turning obediently in the hands of the grandson he had never had the chance to have. It almost seemed like mockery, knowing his legacy would likely go forgotten in the minds of all and even those that saw the true might of his kind would call it something different, something alien, nothing but a cruel reminder of what he had denied his own daughter in his short-sightedness.

This wasn't Wanda, though. This wasn't Pietro, either, nor either of their son, no matter how any other world might have aligned itself. This was a new chance, one he did not plan to cast away, and though this would not ever be his reality he could at least appreciate the fact that it was the potential of his line that had brought this young man into being.

Now all Erik had to do was not drive him away before they could find his children.

Well, he had never thought his task would be an easy one.

*

Kate was not exactly surprised as they were hurried along by grim-looking men in black as soon as they got out of the plane. She was also not surprised as they were escorted through the security with minimal care. A bit disturbed, perhaps, that SHIELD could so blatantly bypass what was supposed to be strict security, but then a lot of what SHIELD did was disturbing if one thought about it too long.

So she was not exactly cheerful. She'd spent the last few days jumping across the globe and trying to find a way home, she had an excuse.

Natasha disappeared somewhere as soon as they were past the security, leaving them with the SHIELD goons, none of whom Kate recognized. Phil and Clint seemed relaxed enough, so she took her cue from them, doing her best not to worry. If nothing else, at least she could hopefully keep Ororo calm. The little girl was staring at everything with wide eyes, clutching onto Kate's hand.

She made a very bad lifeline. Ororo should have found someone better to cling to.

The SHIELD escort disappeared as suddenly as they had materialized in the first place, having led them outside the airport, where a very expensive-looking car was waiting. The driver was vaguely familiar, Kate noticed, nodding at them as he got out of the car, opening the door for them. Which she supposed meant they were supposed to go in.

Well, if SHIELD had meant to kidnap them, they wouldn't have bothered to bring them all the way outside to do it, so she figured it was safe enough. Apparently the men agreed with her, getting into the back of the car, and if those two could let go of their professional paranoia, she supposed it was fine for her to do so, too.

"Well, hello." Tony was already sitting inside, looking up from his tablet as they settled in. There were two rows of seats facing each other. Kate took the seat next to Tony, pulling Ororo besides herself, leaving Phil and Clint to the other side. "You all look quite chipper."

"You try flying across the Atlantic with two days' worth of magical nausea." Why, no, she could not help being the slightest bit snappy.

"Creampuff, I've taken that flight after being freed from terrorists, and I still managed a smile for Pepper. Though granted, Rhodey was constantly trying to make me lie down or sleep or rest as much as possible, so I suppose I missed the best of the trip." His eyes snapped quickly between Kate and Clint with barely hidden relief, dipped toward Ororo, and then finally came to a stop at Phil. "Coulson. I've got to say, you look damn good for a dead man."

"I feel quite well for one, too." Phil's lips twitched. "I presume this is where you want to ask your own questions to make sure I am actually me?"

"Well, I could try not to be an asshole and trust Billy's magical abilities to have brought you back, or, you know, trust that Hawkass isn't blindly enough in love to mistake some impostor for his fiancé." Tony snorted. "But then, I'm pretty sure I'd have to give up my name if I did something like that, and then Tommy would be the oldest Stark alive and that'd just be a disaster. So, yes, I'd quite like some confirmation."

"Very well." Phil settled into the seat, and though he had to be as tired from the long flight as the rest of them, he didn't let it show. "So. What is it you wish to ask?"

"Simple enough." Tony pointed a finger at Phil. "What's your first name?"

Kate blinked in surprise, but Phil didn't seem equally unsettled. "That would depend on what version you are willing to believe," he said. "My SHIELD ID says Phillip. Pepper would, no doubt, call me Phil. You continue to insist it is Agent."

"Right." Tony nodded. "And what have I asked JARVIS to call you?"

Now, Phil's lips actually twitched. "Philadelphia, I believe."

"Good enough for me." Tony shrugged. "Of course, I'm going to have you talk with JARVIS when we get back to the Tower; if you're the actual Coulson, you'll know the overrides to make him take you up to the living quarters. We can set up your actual access after we've confirmed everything. For now, though, we're supposed to head directly over to Billy and his terrorist friend."

"That sounds quite agreeable to me." Phil nodded sagely. "Where precisely are we meeting them?"

"A place somewhere in Westchester." At Kate's look, Tony shook his head. "No, we don't know if it was Billy or Magneto who picked the place. Would be pretty strange if he'd chosen to put his lair that close to the school, but then again, it'd probably be the last place they'd look, from what I've heard."

"Right." Kate paused. "Nobody else came along?" She was rather surprised that Teddy wasn't there, and tried not to be upset that Tommy wasn't. Tony obviously read her thoughts, judging by his response.

"Tommy and Teddy had a long conversation with everyone." Tony paused. "Well, more like a shouting match. The end conclusion was that if either of them came along, they'd probably break down and try to steal Billy away, so since they want to at least try to respect his choice however idiotic it is, they'll just send their love and stay home."

"Right." She had been quite hoping to see Tommy, but she would cope. A few hours wouldn't make much of a difference. "So, how long is it going to be to get there?"

"If the traffic doesn't give us trouble, it should take us about an hour." Tony gave her a knowing glance. "We could drop some of you back at the Tower before heading up, you know. All they're going to need is Agent Agent."

"No. I think I want to see him for myself." She had to, so she could tell Tommy she had seen Billy with her own eyes. "Clint?"

"I'm fine, thanks." As though she had expected him to leave Phil put of his sight again. "And I think the little lady would prefer to stay with people she actually knows." Ororo gave a vigorous nod at that, leaning closer to Kate. Poor thing had to be so confused about everything.

"Ah, yes." Tony turned towards Ororo. "This is the young lady you decided to bring along."

Ororo looked at him with sharp eyes. "Who are you?"

"I'm Tony Stark. Iron Man. Entrepeneur and a father of two, and a very, very rich man if that matters. It probably doesn't, but that's the case anyway." Tony put on his best public grin, though the exhaustion behind his eyes was too clear for it to come even close to being convincing. "We're currently on our way to see one of my boys, as it happens."

"Oh?" Ororo blinked. "Where is he now?"

"He is with this man we know." Kate sighed. "Billy's been missing, and now he's hurt, but he still has something to do so we can't take him home yet."

Ororo frowned. "I bet he's lonely."

"Probably. But with any luck he'll get that something done soon so he can come back home." Kate ruffled Ororo's hair a bit. As she lifted her hand away, a couple of white strands clung to it with static electricity. "Billy sometimes gets in trouble because he wants to help others so much, he doesn't remember to take care of himself."

"That's no good," Ororo said with a decisive tone. "He can't help anyone if he gets hurt."

"See, you're a wise young woman. Certainly wiser than anyone in my family." Tony probably counted himself in that number, Kate mused. He had the strangest moments of self-reflection sometimes. Of course, the supposed wisdom of that was scattered off like so much dust as he opened up a hidden cabinet to the side of the passenger compartment. "So, anyone hungry? I've got snacks for everyone. Juice box, princess? I've got three different flavors here, I'm sure you'll like at least one of them."

Kate almost declined, but then thought the better of it. There had been food on the flight, of course, but even so she was hungry, and a snack sounded like the perfect way to pass some of the ride. At least it wouldn't require her to think.

The drive passed by mostly in relative silence. Phil and Clint exchanged quiet words every now and then, and sometimes Ororo asked a question about whatever she saw out of the window, but other than that the car was quiet save for the occasional rustling of snack packages or some faint sounds from Tony's tablet. The tension was almost tangible in the air, all except perhaps Ororo preparing for what was to come.

It might have been a bit easier if they'd had any idea what to expect.

The car came to a stop at the edge of an empty field, and Kate spared a thought to whoever was unfortunate enough to be responsible for the care of Tony's cars. She suspected most limos did not get taken out for secret rendezvouses with international criminals. They all piled out of the car, looking out into the field. There were two figures standing some distance away, one with dark hair, one with white. Billy and Magneto.

Kate called out, rushing out into the field. Billy moved forward to meet her, with Magneto following at a more sedate pace. She met her friend in the middle, laughing with relief as Billy gave her a hug. She then drew away, giving him a once-over. He was too pale for her liking, wearing clothes that were just slightly the wrong size, and something about the way he stood made her suspect he wasn't entirely all right, but he was smiling nevertheless. "Nice to see you're still relatively in one piece," she teased. "We weren't quite sure if we'd get here and find your mutilated corpse left as a warning."

"I understand the worry, but Erik isn't going to harm me." Well, of course he would think that. "I heard you've had quite an adventure?"

"No thanks to you, you daft thing. At least Tony lets JARVIS know whatever he's planning, so if something goes wrong people will at least be prepared."

"She's right, you know," Tony said, following her out into the field without any care for his clothes. "I do. Especially if I'm doing something that might essentially leave ticking time bombs behind even if I'm wiped out of the picture."

"Well, to be fair, I was sure I had failed." Billy looked over to where Phil was standing, following the situation with sharp eyes. "Though now it seems I was mistaken."

"You were, and I'm not sure how I'm ever going to thank you enough." Clint chuckled. "Though we would be grateful if you'd take the rest of the extra magic away." He paused, then. "You can do that without, like, wiping him away, right?"

"Of course. His existence itself isn't magical, not now that he has been brought back. There is extra magic clinging to him, though, and that I can take away without harming him. It's really no different from undoing a spell."

Tony threw his arms dramatically in the air. "I'd like us all to appreciate the fact that my son is speaking about undoing spells like that's a thing people do."

Magneto snorted, still some distance away from everyone. "Of course you would discount anything that falls outside your own experience, Stark."

"Excuse me, I don't listen to trash talk from known terrorists. And considering I'm a superhero living in a very loving threesome with two mutant kids, I wouldn't exactly call myself mainstream." Tony looked at Billy, now. "You all right? He hasn't been mistreating you, right?"

"He's taken very good care of me," Billy sighed. "I know you all think I have no self-preservation instinct whatsoever, but I've spent enough of my life bullied that I'm not going to stick around to help someone who mistreats me. Even if he has a familiar face." He stepped away from Kate, now, looking toward Phil. "Could you come here?"

Phil seemed a bit apprehensive, but walked forward nevertheless. He paused for a bit as Billy floated up into the air, but then finished his trek, coming to a halt in front of Billy. "Anything I need to do?"

"Just stay still." Billy set his hands above Phil, not quite touching, and a faint blue glow enveloped first him, then Phil. His lips were moving in quiet words, though Kate couldn't begin to guess what it was he was saying. Nobody moved as this happened, everyone staring at the two, and the tension was even more obvious now. Ororo was hiding behind Clint's legs, only barely peeking out, apparently preferring the slight familiarity of him to the strange things that were happening in front of her. Kate wasn't sure she blamed her. For all that she had grown familiar with Billy's magic over the years, there was something strange about this particular instance that made a shiver run down her spine. It almost felt like a cold breeze had blown out from Billy and Phil, chasing away all warmth from her body.

Then suddenly Phil staggered back, and Billy dropped down to the ground, a bit harder than Kate might have expected. Clint rushed forward to support Phil, and Kate made to do the same for Billy, but he waved him off.

"I'm fine," he said, giving her a smile that almost convinced her. "As will he be, soon enough. Even though he couldn't use the magic, it'll still take him a moment to get used to not having it within himself anymore."

"If you're sure." Kate frowned, though, anything but certain.

"Oh, I am." This time the smile was more genuine, and he stood up straighter. She could have sworn there were sparks in his eyes, just for a moment. "I feel much better, now." And as though to prove this, he made an almost careless gesture, the ill-fitting clothes making way for his usual costume, complete with a cape swirling about him even though Kate couldn't feel the slightest hint of a breeze, anymore.

"Right." She nodded slowly. "You'll be home soon, then?"

"I hope so. It shouldn't take long, and with all my magic back, I can get home whenever I want."

"Just don't forget that." Tony stepped closer, frowning. "We're not going to be hunting you down again."

"And you won't need to." Billy grinned at his father, though it then faltered for a moment. "Ah… say hi to Teddy from me, okay?"

"You could just come along and tell him that yourself," Tony pointed out. "But if you say this is important enough for you to stay away a little longer, we'll trust you."

"It is. I know it may not seem like it, but it really, really is." Billy gave them another faint smile, then turned to walk away.

This was when Ororo finally decided to move, rushing forward to cling to his cape. As Billy turned to look at her, blinking in surprise, she refused to let go. "I want to go with you."

"I'm not sure that's a good idea," Billy said. "Wouldn't you rather go with them somewhere safe?"

"No." She shook her head in clear determination. "No, I need to go with you."

"Ororo!" Clint called out. "Ororo, get back here! It's not safe."

"No, it's fine." Billy looked even paler now than he had before the magical exchange, but his expression was calm as he lifted Ororo up into his arms. "She'll be fine."

"I'm not saying you can't keep her safe," Tony said, frowning. He clearly did not like this idea one bit. "However, this is just too risky."

"No, he's right," Kate said, catching up on what he meant. "Billy or no, she will be just fine."

"And how can you know that?" Clint glared at Magneto, obviously not happy with him. Not that Kate could blame him, of course.

"It's rather simple, really." Billy adjusted Ororo on his arm easily, with the easy familiarity of someone who had handled children more times than he could count, and Kate found herself wondering how badly he had to miss his little brothers. "If anything in this world is similar to the one we came from, there is no way Magneto would allow a mutant child come to harm under his watch."

The man himself did not say anything, but his expression did shift ever so slightly. Well. At least he was not entirely unaffected.

"I can see about a thousand ways for this to go wrong," Tony sighed. "Including the fact that nobody seems to find anything wrong with the fact they just picked up a stray kid and then schlepped her halfway across the globe."

"You really have no leg to stand on when it comes to picking up strays." Billy gave him a small grin. "Don't worry, I'll bring her back by the time you've managed to find a way to tell Pepper that she'll have to find somewhere to put her." And apparently this was all he was going to share before he walked over to Magneto, his feet leaving the ground with little effort.

And then, just like that, the three of them were away, leaving Kate and the others staring at an empty spot of ground.

Well, it was empty until the ice giants showed up.


	7. New Faces, New Fears

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There are ice giants, and this time it's not only the Avengers who fight them. Afterwards, Tommy and Teddy are less than fine, but pull it together in time to do some thinking together. Erik doesn't know how to react to Ororo, but at least he is gaining some connection with Billy.
> 
> Tony, however, has an idea, and he doesn't like it one bit.

Tony couldn't help but admire both the bravery and the common sense of his driver. The moment he saw the first ice giant land, Tony turned to rush to the car, finding the trunk already open as he got there. However, as soon as he had grabbed his suitcase armor and Clint threw the side door shut, having retrieved his bag, the man was driving away as fast as he could. Good thinking. That was one less civilian they had to worry about protecting.

"JARVIS, call up the Tower," he said as soon as the suit reached his ears, not even bothering to wait for the mask and the HUD to snap into place. "General alert through to SHIELD as well. And get me Tommy on the phone."

"Immediately, Sir." The mask came down, whirring into life with info and data. Turning towards the field he found Clint already taking aim at the giants, Kate and Coulson taking some distance yet clearly prepared for combat. Good.

"Tony?" And there was Tommy, hurried and angry. Perfect. "There'd better be a damn good reason for the alert that doesn't involve Magneto."

"Funnily enough, seems your grandpa isn't the source of all evil." He thanked his lucky stars he'd taken the time to improve the suitcase armor, taking to air to distract the beasts from their unarmed people. "Billy's come and gone, but we've got another problem. Grab Kate's weapons and whoever's closest and run over."

"Got it." Then the line snapped shut, just in time for Fury's growl of what the hell he was up to, anyway.

"Ah, Nick. Let's keep this short and sweet, shall we?" He blasted the head off one giant who was getting a bit too close to Kate and Coulson. The rest turned to look at him, which, yes, good. Do keep your attention on the guy who has at least marginal protection against your fists. "I've got a bunch of ice giants, Hawkeye and two unarmed people. Any chance of you getting Torch pointed in our direction? I know you've got our location."

"I do expect more details later, Stark." Thankfully, though, even a bureaucrat like Fury did seem to understand the meaning of urgency, as he then grunted, "Right. I'll call up the Baxter Tower."

"Thanks, o Mighty and Furious leader." He then switched to the outside speakers. "Tommy's on his way with the princess's bow and whoever he can convince to come along the fastest," he said. "Fury's sending word to the Four; Johnny isn't quite as fast as Speed, but he'll be here soon enough, and should be good with these things."

"We need to inform Xavier's," Kate said, and wasn't it great that Starks tended to fall for sensible people. "They need to know about the danger, and with some luck they might even be able to send some help."

"Xavier's?" Coulson echoed. "What do you know about them?"

"Of course you'd be up to date on that." Tony snorted. "I've known Charles for a long while, and Tommy and Teddy finished high school through them. It's a bit more complicated than that, but that's a chat for another time." He turned back to the HUD. "JARVIS? We got a number for the school?"

"We do have a contact number for Professor Xavier's office. Would you like me to initiate a call?"

"Please." And just then there was a green whirlwind at the edge of the field that resolved itself into Tommy and Teddy. "Ah, great. The kids are here."

"Kate!" Tommy immediately sped over to her, hugging her tight. "Brought your weapons."

"Oh, I knew there was a reason I love you." Kate hugged him, then shouldered her quiver. "Teddy? Billy's tired but fine, they left before the giants got here. Billy was confident enough in Magneto that he let Ororo go with them."

"Right." Teddy gave her a grim nod. "Then I can cut loose without worry." And with that, he changed.

Tony got some twisted satisfaction from seeing even the oh-so-unflappable Coulson take a step back as their cute blond guy got a lot bigger and a lot, lot greener.

"Xavier's institute for higher learning." Oh, great, the call had gone through. "Professor Xavier speaking."

"Ah, Charles, Charlie, Chuck my dear." Now there was a lot more action on the field, but the giants didn't seem about to let up. "Listen, we've got something going on you might want to know about…"

*

It was a good thing Kurt was holding on with his tail, or he might have fallen off his branch when the Professor's call came. As it was, he barely swayed on his perch up in the tree, pausing in his task. 'Professor?'

'Kurt. I'm afraid I have to interrupt your work.' The tone of the Professor's mental voice was not exactly promising.

'Go ahead.' He put down the saw he had been using to cut down the damaged branches before they got too far into winter. Somehow he had the feeling he wouldn't be finishing up today.

A moment later he hopped down to the ground, where Kitty was waiting for any falling branches. "Kätzchen, get the children inside and make sure they stay there," he said. "And send someone to alert Dr. McCoy. I'm afraid we may be in need of medical aid soon."

"Ah, right." Kitty looked startled. "But — where are you going?"

"I'll be picking up Logan for a little field trip." Because if anything could keep the beasts away from the school, it was Logan's claws.

Logan was, thankfully, rather easy to find. As Kurt appeared in the garage, he was working on a motorbike, a few curious kids around him. The moment he looked up and saw the expression on Kurt's face, though, his usual frown deepened. "Okay, kids, get your asses inside," he barked. "Elf. What's eating you?"

"I'm afraid we have need of your special expertise, Mein Freund." Thankfully, judging by the grim nod, he was understood loud and clear.

"Right." Logan stood up, cracking his knuckles. "Who do you need me to take down?" His eyes promised certain doom to whomever he named, just like that. Simply because Kurt had asked him to.

Less would have warmed his furry little heart. It was just too sweet, really it was.

"Apparently there are ice giants on the field a few miles from here," he said with a low tone, not quite trusting that none of the kids had lingered behind to listen in. "A few of the Avengers are there already, but the Professor asked us to make sure they don't make it to the school grounds."

"Why exactly are we cleaning up the Avengers' messes?" And yet Logan was looking thunderous as ever. "And what exactly is this 'us' stuff? Sorry to say, but I doubt some walking chunks of ice are going to be very impressed with your acrobatics."

"I'm sure I can still be somewhat useful." He reached an arm around Logan, not rising to the bait. "If nothing else, they have unarmed people there, so I can keep everyone out of harm's way." Then, without a warning, he made the first hop, as long as he could manage without making himself dizzy. He had noticed that giving Logan no warning somewhat lessened the nausea involved.

Despite his precaution, Logan was still cursing him as they arrived at the edge of the field a couple of leaps later, shaking his head to clear it of the aftereffects. "Damn. That's never going to stop being damn unpleasant."

"My apologies, Liebling, but it was the fastest way." He looked out to the field, then, and could only manage a small whisper. "Mein Gott." There were Avengers there, yes, but only a few of them, against a dozen or so giant ice monsters at least twice their size, even taking into account the fact that Hulkling was in the middle of it all.

"Yeah, somehow I doubt this'll be solved with a stroke of lightning from the heavens, so I'm afraid we have to get our hands dirty." Logan clenched his fists, the claws popping out all at once, and took a purposeful step toward the field before giving a furious cry and rushing forward.

Well. It was only right that he did what he could, too.

The fight was chaotic to say the least, with new ice giants forcing their way through every now and then, and by the time it seemed their arrivals had died out there was a veritable army of them, hurling spears and chunks of ice every which way. Kurt busied himself with keeping the archers and the one unarmed agent out of their reach, hopping around the field with and without passengers, either dropping them somewhere safer or using himself as a distraction to let the others get in proper shots. Logan's claws bit into the ice with appropriate fury, only coming second in destructive force to Speed, who flitted this way and that, causing the giants to shatter into clouds of crystals while complaining about how he could only make a single limb blow up at once, what with the utterly inconvenient seams. Hulkling, while the only one to match the sheer strength of the creatures, was somewhat slower but no less effective in his strategy of crushing skulls and tearing out limbs, while Iron Man's attacks were somewhat lowered in efficiency by the simple fact he had to avoid hitting his allies on the ever-changing field of battle.

There was a flash of light in the sky at one point, and then a trail of flames heralded the arrival of the Human Torch, and by that point, the battle was as good as decided. With no new giants appearing from nowhere to change their plans, the remaining enemies were dispatched in a flurry of shattered ice and furious roars, until they were all standing upon what was now a thick layer of crushed ice scattered about the field.

"Hm. Good exercise, if nothing else." Logan rolled his shoulders, tilting his head this way and that with rather ominous cracks before walking over to where the Avengers were congregating, along with the Torch. "So. Stark. What the hell are you messing with right now?"

"Not my fault for once," Stark replied, his mask snapping up as he landed. "We had a perfectly peaceful meeting, and then just as we were preparing to head home, boom! Ice giants. Honestly, we're the victims here."

"Of course you'd say that." Logan snorted. "Still. First there's ice giants in the city, while you are there, and then you just happen to be stopping by the exact moments they decide to show up in Westchester? Seems a tad suspicious to me."

"Hey, I'm not saying it's necessarily unconnected. Just that if there is a connection, I haven't placed it yet."

"Magic, probably." Hulkling frowned even as he shrunk back to a more human size, the couple of wounds he had managed to sustain starting to stitch themselves together in front of their eyes. If Kurt hadn't been quite used to Logan's displays of similar abilities, he might have been somewhat weirded out. 

"Magic can be so troublesome." Kurt decided to join the discussion, now, leaping forward and making a somersault to land beside Logan where he had come to a halt. At least that was his intention, anyway. In reality, his legs gave out in pure exhaustion as he landed, only momentarily but enough for him to lose his balance.

"Ooops." He blinked up at Logan, who had caught him just before he hit the ground. "Maybe I overdid it a little."

Logan snorted. "Maybe. At least you didn't faint in the middle of the battle. I'd have hated to be the one to tell your mothers I let you get stepped on by an overgrown snowman."

"And here I was thinking you would have rushed to my rescue like a knight in a shining armor."

"Hardly. If I go around saving your life every time you almost get killed, you'll start to think I actually care whether you live or die." And then, before he could protest, Logan had easily picked him up into his arms like one might a child. "So, the avenging ones. You going to sit here and wait for a ride, or come with us to the mansion? It's a bit of a walk, but I think Chuck will make sure there's tea ready when you get there."

"My driver should be back here shortly, though thanks for the offer. And in any case, it seems about half my people have made themselves scarce anyway." Indeed, as Kurt glanced around, Speed and the younger Hawkeye were nowhere to be found. Then, he supposed it wouldn't have made sense for them to wait around when Speed could make it to the Tower in less time than it took Iron Man to finish his sentence. "Tell Charlie we'll call him as soon we have any idea about what causes these, so he won't have to worry about any more assaults."

"I could do with tea," Human Torch said with far too much cheerfulness for someone who had just been in a battle. "And anyway, you should probably have someone stick around just in case there's another surprise invasion. Not to say you couldn't hold your own, of course, I'm pretty sure I'll be having nightmares about sliced-up glaciers for a while, but, you know, fire and ice. It's a match made in Heaven, if Heaven was inhabited solely by divorce lawyers."

Logan snorted. "Remind me to introduce you to Bobby. Someone's going to cry, I'm sure, but I bet it'll be hilarious as fuck." And then he turned, apparently seeing no reason for further pleasantries, and started walking to the direction of the mansion, still cradling Kurt like he wasn't capable of walking on his own.

Well. Better get carried and be thought incapable than insist on getting on his utterly exhausted feet and remove all doubt.

He wasn't entirely sure if he purely passed out or just fell asleep, but either way he wasn't awake by the time they reached the mansion.

*

As Kate stepped in, the whole room seemed to be glowing blue.

Blinking at the lights, she glanced around, hoping to locate Tommy. He had disappeared as soon as they got back to the Tower, leaving her to find him with the aid of a very helpful AI and her long experience with dealing with him. He was going to sulk, that was without doubt, which meant it was the roof, their bedroom, or his lab. Obviously, in this case, he had opted for the last.

The lights were off, leaving the room in shadow where it wasn't lit up by the ever-shifting lines of blue Tommy was tossing around, speeding from one work table to another, working at several things at once. Not that she believed he was actually making any progress. When Tommy was in this kind of a state, his mind started to run in circles, and it didn't matter how fast he could think when he couldn't think straight.

Honestly, she didn't understand why he still insisted on doing this over and over again, when he knew what he needed was to calm down, not rushing about and working himself up into even more of a distressed state.

"Tommy?" She walked closer carefully, not wanting to get in his way. Not that he couldn't avoid her, his reflexes being fast as they were, but it was best not to take any risks when he was in such a mood. "Tommy, are you all right?"

"Huh?" He stood right next to her all of a sudden, a wild look in his eyes even as he tried to smile. "Oh, sure, right, of course I am. Why wouldn't I be? You're home at last and safe and sound, so I don't have to go out and punch anyone, I'm just perfect."

"While Billy is out there with an international terrorist and a little kid. I'm not stupid, Tommy." She sighed. "Just… I wish you could trust me enough to at least admit when you're not fine."

"It's not about that." And yet he wouldn't meet her gaze, turning instead toward the closest display, starting to work on something that looked vaguely like an arrow. "I just have to keep telling myself that, and maybe at some point it'll be true."

"You can talk to me, you know." She reached a hand toward him, hesitating just inches away. "We're all worried about Billy. You can admit it, too."

"We'd better get him back and fast," Tommy said, his hands flying across the display much faster than her eyes could follow them. "I can't handle things without him."

"Yes, you can." Kate set a hand on his shoulder, feeling the muscle tremble with speed and anxiety. "But you won't have to, since we're bringing him home."

"We'd better," he murmured. His hands stilled for a moment, a deep breath drawing a shudder through his body. "I'm pretty sure I'll need a best man at some point in my life, and nobody but Billy has much of a hope of stopping me from running off."

"Oh?" Kate's eyebrows rose despite her best efforts. "Is that an implication you're planning to marry me some day, or is there something else you'd like to tell me?"

Finally, Tommy looked at her, and though he still looked pale and shaken, there was at least a hint of his usual smirk on his face. "Sorry, babe, that's not going to work. You want a proper proposal, you're going to have to do it yourself."

"That's fine." She managed a faint smile. "I pretty much expected I'd have to do it, anyway."

"Right. So, you know, just let me know when we're at that point."

"I'll be sure to." She paused, then reached her arms around him, drawing him close. "He'll be fine. We won't let him not be fine."

"I know," Tommy sighed. "But I also know it's not that simple."

"We're heroes, though," she pointed out. "It's kind of our job to make things simple. Besides, it's not like he's entirely helpless, himself."

"I know he's not. Hell, as long as his magic's working he has the best potential to defend himself out of any of us, and I don't feel bad for admitting that. However, that's against guys like Doom, when he's not afraid to use all that power."

"And you think he will be now?"

"I know he will." Tommy shook his head. "Sure, it's not our Magneto, and he knows that, but I'm not sure he can actually see that. Considering this one's never been a good guy, Billy might have to choose between getting hurt or hurting the magnet man if shit hits the fan, but do you really think he could do that?"

"He wouldn't let Magneto hurt himself," Kate said, hugging Tommy even closer. "I know he can occasionally be a bit stupid with his own safety, but he's not an idiot. And furthermore, Ororo is there. If he has any hesitation, he will overcome it to keep her safe."

"I suppose." Tommy sighed. "I still don't like this."

"I know you don't. None of us do, but we have to try and trust Billy."

"But I do trust him," Tommy argued. "I trust him to have my back in battle or to kick my ass if I ever do something utterly idiotic like try to leave you or something. What I don't trust him to do is put his own well-being before others."

"I know. But that's part of what makes him Billy." Kate sighed. "He'll come back. He promised that much."

"And he'd better keep that promise, or I'll go and kick his ass." Tommy trembled, just a little, and she tightened her hold. There wasn't really anything she could say to help, but at least she could be there. It was more than she had been able to do for days, anyway.

When Tommy finally turned around, frantic hands running along her sides as though to make sure she was still there, all she did was remind JARVIS to lock the door before leaning in to kiss him.

*

The child was watching him.

This wasn't a terribly surprising occurrence. Children tended to be curious, and he was something new and interesting. Of course she would pay attention to him. However, while he was rather used to being examined closely, such intense, unwavering attention was not something he had encountered often as of late, certainly not strong enough that he could still feel the sharp eyes at the back of his head as he turned away.

Billy was not saying much, appearing rather tired. He had reiterated his earlier plan of not casting the spell until the following day, which Erik considered perfectly reasonable. For now, Billy had chosen to slump down on the old couch while Erik busied himself with preparing dinner. He wasn't sure if either of the two were hungry, but he certainly was, and it would hopefully help Billy regain his strength. Only because he had to do so to be able to fulfill Erik's request, of course. That was his only motivation.

"Am I that interesting, child?" he asked as he still felt her gaze at his back as he turned toward the food again. Of course he knew when he was being watched; he wouldn't have lived this long otherwise.

"You're strange." Well, at least she was honest. "Your hair's like mine."

"Indeed it is." And wasn't that a peculiar thing.

"Is it because you're old? Old people have hair like mine."

Surely, he only imagined the snort of suppressed laughter from Billy's direction. "Well, I am not the youngest of men anymore," he admitted. "But my hair has been like this most of my life."

"It runs in the family," Billy joined the conversation. "My brother has white hair, too, and our uncle."

"So you're family?" The child sounded puzzled. "But they said you were with someone mean."

"Who said that?"

"Kate and Clint." She sounded very sure of herself. "They said Billy was missing and he was with someone mean so we had to go and rescue him. But you don't seem mean, mister."

"Perhaps I just don't have any reason to be mean right now." He certainly wasn't someone people considered kind, either. "I used to be very mean, though."

"Why? Doesn't that make people sad?"

"Perhaps. However, I wasn't overly concerned with other people's sadness or lack thereof." And this was why he did not generally speak with children. That, and the fact he rarely was in any contact with children to begin with. "If you heard I was mean, why did you want to come with us?"

"Because Billy is hurt." Now, Erik glanced back at her, and she was frowning, her little lips pursed in thought. "He's hurt and lonely, and nobody should be hurt and lonely, so I wanted to come with him so he wouldn't be so lonely anymore."

"I see." He hoped they both liked spaghetti, because it was just about done. "And weren't you afraid?"

"At first I was, but not anymore when he picked me up." Her tone got a bit lighter. "He smells safe."

"I do?" Billy sounded amused at that. "Why do you say that?"

"I don't know. Just, your hair kind of smells like thunder. It's a nice smell."

"In my experience, most children are not big fans of thunderstorms." He scooped out the spaghetti onto three plates, adding the sauce on top.

"I'm a weather witch, though." She didn't sound terribly happy with that title.

"Are you, now?" Erik took the plates over to the table, motioning for them both to join him. Surely even Billy had enough energy left to make it to the table like civilized people, however impressive his little magic trick had been. "And why do you say that?"

"That's what people called me." She gave a small, awkward shrug, still frowning a bit. "Because of what I do."

"And what do you do?" Perhaps she was merely cautious. To hopefully set her at ease, he let the cutlery float over to the table on its own, aided only with a small flick of his wrist. "Things other people can't do, perhaps?"

Her eyes widened momentarily at the sight, and then she nodded. "Right. I can -- I can make it rain, sometimes. Mostly when I'm sad. Or storms when I'm afraid. I usually try not to, though. People don't like it when I do things."

"I'm afraid it's rather in the nature of humans," Erik sighed, taking a seat. Billy was finally making his way out of the couch, the girl already bouncing toward the table. "They cannot understand what they do not have, and what they cannot understand, they fear."

"And what they fear, they hate," murmured Billy, a hand absentmindedly petting her hair as he reached the table. "Not all of them, but some. Sometimes, it's just safer to hide."

"I am somewhat surprised to be hearing that from you, young man."

"What can I say? I never was good at hiding." Billy shrugged, taking the remaining seat. "I was bullied long before my powers came in. I probably would have gotten away a lot easier if I had just kept my head down and tried not to attract attention, but, well. That's not something I'm willing to do."

"There are times when defiance will not lead to favorable results."

"Oh, believe me, I noticed. But it's not my fault if people decide to be idiots." Billy gave him a weak attempt at a smirk. "As I once told a very wise woman, I don't have a problem with who and what I am, it's everyone else who has the problem."

"There is a fine line between bravery and stupidity. I will call that the former, but only because I am somewhat biased on the matter."

"Of course you are." Now, Billy offered the child a smile. "Don't worry, Ororo. If people don't like you the way you are, that's on them, not you. You haven't done anything wrong."

"But I'm not normal." And, ah, she was far too young for such worries, and this world was so terribly unfair that she would have such. "If I was normal, maybe people wouldn't be afraid."

"If everyone was normal, this would be a very boring world, don't you think?" Billy's smile grew into a grin that appeared genuine. "You saw what Erik can do, and I brought us here with magic. You said you can make rain, right? Well, I can call lightning from my hands. I think if you practiced, you might be able to, too."

"But then people would get more afraid." She seemed to shrink back into herself, poking at the spaghetti with her fork.

"That all depends on how you use it." Billy cast a glance in Erik's direction that was probably not accidental. "If I just went down the street and cast lightning at everyone who walked by, people would be afraid and angry, yes. But I use it to help people, not hurt them. That's the way superheroes work."

"Are you a superhero?"

"I've been called that." Billy reached out to pat her hand. "Now, do please eat, and then I need to get some sleep. And tomorrow, when we're all rested, I need to find someone for Erik. And after everything's over, I can teach you to fly if you want."

"Really?" Ororo gasped. "I could learn to fly?"

"I see no reason why not." His voice carried the same conviction as his words. Erik wondered just what he knew about this child, when he knew so much about Erik himself. "I bet you're pretty tired, too. You had a long flight, didn't you? I know it's still light out and everything, but it's getting late back in Egypt."

"Right." She nodded slowly. "And tomorrow we'll go find someone for Mr. Erik?"

"That's right." He smiled, and seeing that smile, that familiar-looking young man smiling at her with hope and reassurance, caused Erik's chest to ache.

It wouldn't be long anymore, he reminded himself. Tomorrow, he would finally see his children, and whether they forgave him or not, at least he would have tried. Before that, though, he still had to make sure the dark-haired young man and white-haired little girl got their proper rest.

Standing at the door to the spare bedroom, looking to where Billy had made room in his bed for a little girl so very far from home, he knew there would be little sleep for him tonight.

*

Bruce was not exactly surprised to realize that Teddy had broken off from the group almost as soon as they had reached the Tower.

He knew it without asking anyone for clarification, the moment he went to see the returning heroes and didn't see his adopted son there. He gave a brief nod to Coulson, who returned it, and then retreated to look for the boy. There would be quite enough fuss here for the foreseeable future; he could bother the man after Pepper had taken her turn. She at least had known the man for more than ten minutes.

It wasn't hard to find Teddy, a fact he was vaguely thankful for. There were a handful of options, but some were likelier than others, and it just so happened Bruce got lucky with the first one. As he walked towards the gym he could already hear the sound of someone smacking a punching bag with an amount of force that would have vastly overcome anything that hadn't been specially constructed by Tony Stark for just such purposes.

"A bunch of ice giants not enough exercise for you?"

Teddy paused in his punishment of the bag, turning to look at Bruce as he stood in the doorway. He was still in his Hulkling form, or perhaps again, huge scale-covered shoulders rising and falling with each heavy breath. "Ah. Sorry. I just..."

"It's fine." Bruce walked into the room. "I understand. You know I often go aside after a battle myself, though probably for different reasons." Most of the time, he was simply too exhausted; the transformation took a lot out of him, regardless of whether it was voluntary or not. And when he wasn't exhausted, he needed a moment to calm down so he knew he wouldn't be a threat to himself or others. "I thought I'd come looking for you when the others got up to the living room and you weren't there. Sure, I could have stayed to greet Agent Coulson properly, but I figured I could let everyone have a go at the good agent before I needed to bother him."

"Right." Teddy looked somewhat sheepish, now, flexing his fingers. It would have looked almost innocent if not for the size of the claws he still wielded. "I just... needed time to think."

"Quite understandable." Green, green, so much green, and for once, he almost didn't feel too bad about seeing all that. "Are you all right? No injuries?"

"Nothing that would stick." Teddy shrugged, a casual roll of muscle and scale and natural armor. "I heal fast."

"So I've come to understand." Bruce shook his head. "Quite against all the odds, sometimes. I was rather fascinated the first time I saw Steve's wounds healing, gone in just a few days without a mark. And then I saw your body stitching itself back together as you go."

"It's not exactly healing, though. It's shapeshifting." Teddy was shrinking, now, though he still remained green and scaled over. "I'm not healing as much as my body takes on a healthy shape. It's got its pros and cons. I mean, aside from a couple of notable exceptions, most people's healing abilities can't regrow missing limbs; not that I've ever tried, but if I can grow functional wings without much effort, a new arm shouldn't be much of a problem. But then, I've also rarely heard of someone's healing ability being turned against them. Shapeshifters... well. It's great as long as you can control it." Teddy winced, then. "Ah. Sorry."

"Don't be. It's quite true, after all." This was good, though. Nice and calm subject matters. Sure, speaking of battles and grievous injuries wasn't exactly cheerful, but at least the boy didn't seem to be moping. "I'm curious, though. Wouldn't the ice giants slow you down? The temperature, I mean?"

"Not really, no. I'm not even sure if the Skrull are cold-blooded or not; if they are, my Kree side's obviously overcome that. Billy sometimes complains that I'm too hot, and not as a compliment."

"Right. Well, I'd imagine shapeshifting would take some energy, so it would need a metabolism to match." Much though he hated to break their nice conversation, there had been an opening there. "You miss Billy." He didn't bother to turn that into a question. That would have been just insulting.

"Of course." The scales were away, now, too, the skin slowly starting to turn back to its usual tone. The boy was still taller and broader than Bruce himself, and he was not exactly a tiny man, much though he sometimes felt like it, living around the likes of Thor and Steve. "Every moment. But if he thinks this is something he needs to do, he's going to do it, with or without my intervention."

"It does seem to run in the family, yes." Bruce took a step back toward the door, and Teddy turned to follow, almost instinct rather than a conscious decision, judging by the way his attention didn't seem to be on his destination at all. "He'll be fine, you know."

"I know. I've kept telling that to myself often enough that I couldn't not know it by now." Teddy gave a mirthless chuckle. "He's got his magic now. With all due respect to Magneto, if that mess comes to a fight, I wouldn't even want to be an onlooker, never mind the one going against Billy."

"He does pack a punch when it's needed, yes." Then, all the Avengers seemed to be able to wreak some destruction when the need arose. "But he thinks he's safe, and he'll be back soon, hopefully without any further fights. We just have to trust him."

"Of course. And when he does come back, I'll let him know exactly how much of an idiot he is." And here, at last, was an actual smile, the kind that Teddy was usually giving away without much of a thought. "In a very loving way, of course."

"Of course." Bruce smiled. "Now, how about we go get you something to eat? I know your transformation isn't quite the same as mine, but I can't imagine you wouldn't be starving." As the boy seemed to hesitate, he added, "Don't worry, we'll employ JARVIS's help so you don't need to actually face anyone until you're absolutely ready."

"Thanks." Teddy seemed somewhat relieved. "Ah. Not to offend anyone, but... well. I do kind of need space right now. For the moment, at least."

"I figured as much." He was something of an expert in these things. "You do trust Billy, and want to respect his decision, but at the same time you're annoyed that he won't let you help and you're angry at yourself that he ended up in such a situation on his own in the first place, and on top of that you're still running high on adrenaline from the battle because it wasn't enough. Not that it could be, of course, nothing could be enough as long as you don't know for sure Billy is safe and sound, but that's not something you can influence so you'd rather take some time to calm down, especially when the alternative is watching a number of warm reunions that would just underline the fact that you will still have to wait to be reunited with the one you miss the most. After all, it would be quite terrible if that emphasized loneliness combined with your remaining shreds of anger and led you to say or do something you might regret later."

There was a halt to the footsteps following him. As he turned to look, Teddy was staring at him, rooted to the spot. "How did you..."

"There are two kinds of people who are born strong," Bruce replied. "Some, or I might say most, will learn early on how to use that strength to their advantage. They aren't afraid to use it, might even be said to revel in it. Then there are those who learned from that same early age to rein themselves in, to control themselves. Those people find it their duty not to harm others without just cause, not to use their strength to achieve their own ends, because that would not be right, because that's not why they have strength. You would never take the risk, however remote, that you might lash out at one of your friends in your frustration and pain."

"No -- that's not it. I mean, I'm pretty sure I should be blushing here, I'm not that much of a saint or anything, but that part kind of makes sense. Just... how did you know about the battle not being enough? Yes, I know I was just beating a punching bag, but I also do that when I need to think."

"Quite simple, my boy." Bruce smiled at him, and while it was a gentle smile, it also carried the wistfulness of someone who knew precisely how it felt to be in such a position. "Everything else about you has returned to human form, yet your hands still have claws."

Teddy was quiet the rest of the way. As he settled to a stride next to Bruce, his silence prompted Bruce to look his way. The boy was looking down at his hands, finally back to their usual shape as well.

'Little green is sad,' the other guy observed. 'And angry.'

'Indeed he is,' Bruce agreed. 'But he'll be better soon.' Or so he certainly hoped.

If Billy didn't come home, he wasn't sure there was a force known to this Earth that could hold Teddy back from tearing the world apart to bring him back.

*

"You know, you two are being disgustingly cute."

Coulson looked over from where he had just very nonchalantly wiped a bit of melted cheese off the corner of Clint's mouth. "I fail to see what you mean."

"Just... this." Tony waved his hand in their general direction. "Being all cutesy and stuff. Hell, the kids on a datenight are less couple-y than you two."

"Well, first off, I think we're allowed, under the circumstances," Clint replied, dangling the rest of his pizza slice in his hand. "And second, I just can't believe you're saying this with Pepper asleep against your shoulder."

"Hey, that's entirely different." He glanced to his side, where Pepper's head was indeed resting against his shoulder, her eyes closed in slumber. It wasn't often that she allowed herself to be this relaxed, even in the relative privacy of the Tower. "Besides, she's had a long few days. She's been busy running SI and doing a lot of the practical stuff while you two were having your extended love picnic in foreign lands."

"Yeah, because llamas totally spell romantic picnic, especially when you consider the part where we were accompanied by my daughter. Absolute romance, that was." Clint smirked. "Still. She's asleep against your shoulder, and I'm sorry, that's totally more cutesy than Phil disapproving of my lack of cleanliness."

"That would be my opinion as well." And yet Coulson was giving them the closest thing to an actual smile Tony had ever seen from him, the evil taser-toting bastard. "But then, I'm not sure I would be all that bothered even if we were judged to be, ah, disgustingly cute. It is quite an improvement over being dead."

"To be fair, a lot of things are an improvement over that. One might even say most things." Tony leaned his head back against the couch, careful not to jostle Pepper. She needed all the rest he could get. "Okay. Most of the people are home and in one piece, and we've stopped another ice giant invasion. If not for the fact that Billy's still off who knows where and we don't have the faintest clue as to why the giants keep appearing, I might actually properly relax for once."

"It's kind of frightening that one of the kids traipsing off with a supervillain and leaving interplanetary invasion forces in his wake is an improvement over the previous state of affairs."

"Well, to be fair, the ice giants could be interdimensional. I'm not entirely sure how the Nine Realms thing works. I mean, I know they're different worlds, but I'm not sure even Thor was certain if they're actually different planets in the same plane of space and time or nine, well, realms. Thor's descriptions of Asgard certainly don't fit my definition of a planet."

"And that's enough science talk for now." Steve's hand appeared from behind his shoulder, handing him a steaming cup of coffee. "Here. I thought you might be done with your pizza by now."

"Ah, my savior." Tony grinned as Steve rounded the couch and sat down on his other side, holding his own cup. Yeah, Clint would give him shit about it later, but let him. Some things were worth being a bit cute. "How was everyone?"

"You could just ask JARVIS, surely." Steve shifted just a big closer, not quite leaning against him but close enough for their arms to brush against each other. Tony was just going to ignore the almost smug look on Clint's face.

"And so I could. But I like it when you're being all serious team captain." It made him calmer, for one thing. It was nice to know someone was looking after them all.

"Well, everyone is in the Tower, for one thing. I think Darcy and Natasha were working on organizing Pepper's schedule for the next few days." Natasha had returned to the Tower soon after them from wherever she had been on SHIELD business, then disappeared after just a couple of words with Coulson. Tony would have wondered, but he supposed a trans-Atlantic flight would be more than enough reunion time. "Bruce was meditating, so I just left his pizza to the side, I thought it best not to disturb him. Thor was with Jane, and either he was quoting an epic poem or they were discussing the ice giant situation, I'm not entirely sure which. Tommy had Kate and Teddy in his lab and they were so busy talking about something, they almost didn't notice when I arrived with the food."

"That's good to hear at least. Teddy seemed rather out of sorts when we got back to the Tower, not that I can blame him. Once Billy gets home I'm grounding him until he's forty."

Steve raised his eyebrows. "Aren't you the one who gave me that speech about how we can't hold him back from making his own decisions and he's a grown man now?"

"Sure. And when I was his age I was a semi-depressed alcoholic with an attitude problem, so it's not like I have a leg to stand on, even if I could even imagine enforcing such rules. However, it's the thought that counts in these things." Tony shook his head. "Any idea what the kids were so busy talking about? Because if they were planning a Magneto-invasion, I want in on that."

"I'm not sure. They seemed to be disagreeing over some coordinates."

"Coordinates?" Tony frowned. He hadn't actually been serious about the Magneto invasion. Well. Not entirely serious, in any case. "Coordinates to what?"

"Wait." Clint paused, the last piece of his slice halfway to his mouth. "My comm link. Did you try to trace it when we were off?"

"Yeah, sure. I think SHIELD just about pinged you a couple of times; however, before we could get anyone there, you'd disappeared again. It's a solid concept, but finding something on a global scale while tapping into various satellites without actual authorization takes time."

"See, here's the thing." Clint leaned forward, now looking very serious. Coulson mirrored his expression, a small frown to his face. "I know I had it with me when we got off the plane. Played with it for a moment in the car, on the way to Westchester. But when the giants showed up and I reached for it, it wasn't there."

"You dropped it in the car?" Tony frowned. Yeah, sure, that would involve coordinates, but not much of a point.

"Not quite." Clint shook his head. "When we first found Ororo, she was trying to pickpocket me, right? Well, just before she ran off to Billy, she was hiding behind me. Clinging to my pants leg, even."

"You don't think..." No. It was too great to even think about.

"Well, with magic and magnetism, there is always a chance it's fried by now," Clint replied. "However, if I'm right, Ororo just might have nicked a homing beacon for us to keep an eye on."

"Hell." Oh, it was always just a bit adorable when Steve cursed. Tony wondered if it had been the war that taught him or if he'd been foul-mouthed as a scrawny little kid, too. "So with some luck, we could trace them?"

"Correction: we can trace them." And suddenly Tommy was there, standing next to the couches, Teddy and Kate doubtlessly not far behind. He was basically vibrating with excitement. "I've got them located. I was running some tests on my equipment and noticed that Hawkass's comm link did not ping to the Tower, and then Kate remembered Ororo, so I tapped into SHIELD's systems and prioritized the NY State area because Kate didn't think their hideout was very far, and bam! Got it."

Coulson's frown deepened, and Tony almost expected him to comment on the unauthorized use of SHIELD systems. "You mean you know where they are?" Hey, he was happy to be wrong sometimes.

"Well, we know where Ororo is," Kate replied, appearing in the doorway with Teddy. "The location isn't anywhere on our way from the airport to the field, or from there back to the Tower, so it's not just a case of Clint dropping the device. Now, I know Billy wouldn't have left her anywhere; if they'd decided to leave her behind, he would have at least sent her here, so she's with them. And Tommy's certain the device would have been fried if Magneto had done anything."

"Well, Billy's died when good ol' magnet man whisked him away." Tommy shrugged. "Besides, Billy is alive and his heart rate isn't showing any alarming changes." He glanced at Teddy, who nodded in response, his hand reaching toward his magnificent magic earring probably more on instinct than anything. God, Tony's life was so weird sometimes.

"So we can find them, then." Clint was halfway up from the couch. "But we're going to leave them be?"

"We promised." And Teddy didn't look entirely happy about that, but he was right. "Besides, we've got a theory about what this mysterious errand of Billy's is. I mean, obviously we're not certain, but really the chances aren't very high it could be something else."

"It's all down to Billy, really." Tommy's excited vibrations were dying down, but he still looked about to bounce up and down. "I mean, he's impulsive sometimes and this is me saying this, but he's also not me so he would have given it some thought at least. And while there isn't a lot he wouldn't do for someone he really likes, Kate thinks he's had enough time to think about this whole alternate worlds thing not to mix up this Magneto and the old one emotionally. I mean, obviously he's going to be all stupid and trusting because he's Billy, but while he has a tendency for random stupid heroics he wouldn't run off without informing us just for anyone. Or so we hope."

"So Magneto has to have something for him to do that Billy thinks is important enough to warrant his attention regardless of who is doing the asking," Kate continued. "Well, not entirely regardless of it, but again, just it being Magneto wouldn't be enough for him not to even drop by home first. So basically, we've been trying to think of possible reasons why Billy would run off like that."

"It can't be something to do with saving the world. He'd want either us or Dr. Strange for it, depending on whether it's heroics or magic, and if it was a matter of not being able to take anyone along, he wouldn't have let Ororo go." At least the kids had pretty solid logic to their theory. Tony approved. "This is Magneto, so it could conceivably be something to do with him wanting to change sides. However, if that were the case, they would have contacted either SHIELD or us by now, Billy knows we would help. And yes, we checked, and they haven't been in touch with Xavier's folk, either, so they can't be using that avenue for redemption, at least not yet."

"So it's not saving the world, and it's not saving Erik. It's probably also not saving anyone else, by the same token of not asking for help but letting Ororo come along." Kate clapped her hands together. "There is, however, one possible cause left. One where it would not be beneficial to have any extra heroes or especially SHIELD agents along, but a child would not be viewed as a threat. And for extra fun, we know for a fact Billy's done it before, to much more disapproval from much less forgiving Avengers."

"And what is your conclusion?" Not that he disliked it when someone showed their work, he was an engineer and could appreciate the sight of a more or less supported thought process, but he had to admit to getting impatient. "What is it Billy ran off to do?"

"We think Magneto asked him to find someone." Teddy's tone was quiet and serious, yet with a strange touch of softness to it. "Someone only Billy could help him find. And, more importantly, someone Billy would want to find, regardless of what world we're in."

"I checked the SHIELD files." Tommy folded his arms across his chest. "The last entry on Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch was from their battle against Magneto. However, aside from a mention of the Witch sustaining severe injuries, there was nothing about what they did after the battle. Not even SHIELD knows where they are, but we have no reason to believe they're dead, either."

"We think," Kate said, and the room was suddenly silent enough her words seemed to echo, "that Magneto is trying to find his children. And Billy is helping him."

"Well." Tony was the one to break the silence, trying to work his brain into something resembling coherent communication. "That is. I don't see any way that could blow up in our collective faces." Why, yes, he was being sarcastic.

"That's the problem, though." Teddy bit his lip. "There are risks. Of course there are risks. The twins and Magneto alone can do a lot of damage if they clash, and there's no telling what Billy will do if Erik betrays his trust. Or, for that matter, what happens if his and Wanda's powers interact, given how disastrous his clash with Loki's magic seems to have been. But Billy doesn't see any of that. All he can think about is finding his mother, again."

"And how badly did it go last time?" Tony was glad Coulson asked that, because he wasn't sure he could have.

"Oh, you know. A couple of teammates dead, distorted space and time, that sort of thing. In our defense, though, there were a couple of supervillains involved, and that's not counting Magneto or any of the X-men."

"Right." Steve sighed. "That's... should we be worried?"

"Maybe. I don't know." Tommy shrugged. "If we're right, then we couldn't help the situation even if we were there. In fact, any additional variables would just make a bad outcome more likely. With any luck, Billy and a cute kid can counteract Magneto if and when they find his twins. Anyone associated with SHIELD probably wouldn't go down so well. And in any case, Billy doesn't think Magneto has bad intentions or he wouldn't have agreed to help, never mind let Ororo go along. He also wouldn't let any of them get into a big flashy mutant fight, and if SHIELD's old estimates of their respective power levels are anywhere near their current status, Billy can keep them off each other's throats, no problem."

"So what is the part where we maybe should be worried?"

"Well, while we're pretty sure Billy can calm them down if they start to fight, if it actually gets into an all-out battle, things could get ugly and fast. In which case we need to respond soon, but we can't exactly stalk them until then. Especially since we'll have to locate the comm link all over again as soon as Billy blinks them out." Kate shook her head. "Billy looked pretty tired when we saw him, so I don't think they'll be moving tonight. So, we've got JARVIS going through databases based on aged-up pictures of Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch; we already checked the artificially aged pictures matched what we've seen in our old world. If that doesn't give us at least a starting location, we'll go to the SHIELD face recognition system, but that won't give us much until daytime."

"Right. Sounds to me like you kids have everything under control." At least they were being more productive than anyone else. But then, they did know Billy the best. "Give us a holler if you need a hand or a robotic glove, okay?"

"Will do." And with that the three turned, heading out of the room.

"My, my." Coulson leaned back. "I know they're supposedly not actually yours, but I have to say, they do fit right in the family."

"Well, technically out of the three only Tommy is a Stark," Clint pointed out. "Though I guess Teddy and Katie are both as good as, in-laws and all that, but still. Tommy gets pretty frighteningly Tony-like, though, especially when his brain is running about five times the average speed."

Tony almost commented on that, but his mind was stuck on something else. Something that Tommy had said, or had it been Teddy? Yeah, Teddy, one of his comments had...

"Tony?" Steve was frowning, Tony could tell even without looking, he had his frowny voice on. "Tony, what is --"

"I've got to go." He almost shot up all at once, but the weight of Pepper against his shoulder slowed him down, and he supported her until Steve could draw her close to himself instead so she didn't just fall down. "Just. Something I've got to check. Where did you say Jane was?"

"He and Thor were discussing something, in the corridor outside her lab when I saw them. But why --"

"No time, got to fly, I'll tell you when I've got something concrete, okay?" He almost absentmindedly leaned down to kiss Steve, placed another kiss on top of Pepper's hair, and hurried off. No time for extra wondering right now. He had some figures to run. If he was right, they potentially had a catastrophe in their hands.

He was too old for a new Ice Age.

*

When Billy woke up, it was dark.

He couldn't tell the exact time, but the sky outside the one window definitely indicated nighttime, which he supposed was the best he was going to get right now. It was quiet enough for night, too. The main sound that caught his ears was the soft rhythm of someone breathing by his side, softer than Teddy. That might have made him freak out had he not started to slowly remember the events of the previous day. Meeting up with the others, seeing dead people, weird magical feelings and leaving with a kid in tow. Right. Ororo was fast asleep, curled on the other half of the bed that was really too small for two people, even if one of them was just a child.

Careful not to startle Ororo awake, Billy got out of bed, walking quietly across the room. Perhaps a glass of water would help him settle down to get some more sleep.

He had almost made it to the sink as the voice from behind him made him jump. "Can't sleep?"

Billy spun around, finding Magneto staring at him in the semi-darkness. Well, Erik, in any case, half-sitting on the worn old couch, a blanket over his legs. And, because obviously Billy had his very own brand of the usual Stark ingenuity, the first thing to hop out of his mouth was, "Please don't tell me I've taken over your bed." It really should have occurred to him earlier, at least when he'd been well enough to actually stand up, that there was no other bed to be seen anywhere in the apartment. Great.

Erik blinked, then gave a wry chuckle. "It's not exactly as though your visit was planned on either of our parts," he said, sitting up properly. "And in any case, a few nights on the couch are far from the worst hardship I've ever had to endure."

"Right." Billy swallowed. "Sorry, I -- I didn't mean to wake you."

"I'm afraid I was awake to begin with. It seems for once, I am the one who has done the least to tire himself." That, and there was a tension about his eyes that Billy could see even in the semi-darkness, but it was probably for the best not to mention that. "How is the child?"

"Asleep. Well, she was when I got out of bed, and I hope the trend continues. I'm not exactly in the mood for a pyjama party."

"Indeed." Erik paused. "If you don't feel like sleeping right now, perhaps you would like to sit down and talk for a while?"

"I -- right." He made his way over to the table, pulling out a chair to sit down. "About?"

"Our little guest, for example." Erik nodded to the direction of the bedroom. "What do you know about her?"

"This version of her? Not much. Her name is Ororo Munroe, and Kate picked her up in Cairo." Billy sighed. "Back in our world... well. She was a witch and a queen and a goddess, and a leader in many ways. Notably older than five or so, mind."

"I already presumed that, yes." Erik paused. "And you truly believe she is safe with me?"

"Yes." The answer came without hesitation, now. He had no reason to ponder it much further. "I know you wouldn't let a child come to harm if you could help it. And if you were that different from your other self, well... in that case, I would consider you irredeemable enough that I would feel little guilt about using my powers against you."

"I shall take that as a warning, then." Erik's eyebrows lifted a bit. "Are you always this protective over children you barely know?"

"It's kind of in the job description when you sign up to be a hero." Billy shrugged. "That, and, well... she makes me think."

"About what?" Before he could respond, though, Erik was offering his own answer. "Past siblings? ...Or future children?"

"Ah. A bit of both, to be honest?" Billy rubbed the back of his neck, feeling a bit awkward. "In our old world... I had two younger brothers, there. The younger one was not much older than Ororo here appears to be. It's pretty hard not to think about them when I see her. I... I miss them. Even though I know they're safe and happy and my other self is there, it's not easy, knowing I won't see them grow up." Of course he missed his parents, too, but... you were supposed to grow up and leave your parents behind. Perhaps not in as permanent a manner as he had, but still. Younger siblings were another thing entirely. He wasn't supposed to leave his brothers behind, not ever.

"So you protect her in their place, because they are not here." Erik nodded slowly. "And the other topic?"

"Um. Ah." He blushed a bit, though he wasn't sure if Erik could see it in the dark. "It's... we want kids, Teddy and I. Not right away, of course, we're not even married yet, but some day, when we're ready." He tapped his fingertips against the table surface, a nervous little tattoo in the nigh-silence. "We're not sure how, yet, but we'll figure it out. And, well, regardless of whether we figure out how to get biological kids, we're still probably going to adopt at least one or two kids. Mutants, that is. I know there are less of us here than there were at most in the other world, but... I may be a hero, but I'm not idealistic or naive enough to think that there won't be mutant kids whose parents would be all too happy to be rid of them."

"So, it might be a child very much like Ororo?"

"Yeah. I mean, not her. Not that there's anything wrong with her, but we're not ready yet, and... well, honestly, I'd prefer a child young enough that we were at least legal around the time she was born. As it stands, I was probably thirteen when she was born, and, first, that's kind of creepy, and second, I'm really not sure we're old enough to be parents for a five-year-old. Not sure we're old enough for a baby, either, but at least with a baby you get to learn from the start. I haven't finished school myself, yet; I don't want to be worrying about taking someone smaller to school as well."

"That seems like a rather reasonable stance to me." Another slow nod. "So, what is to become of her?"

"Well, according to what little I've heard, it seems she's orphaned in this world, as well. Which probably means we're going to find her a home, because that seems to be the standard operating procedure in such matters. Probably not any of the Avengers, none of our lives are exactly fitting for raising a child right now, but I'm sure Tony will find someone." He paused. "If he doesn't, I will. I won't let her be alone again."

"As is only right." Erik's tone was as serious as Billy's own had been. "Good. I would have been somewhat irate if you lot had dragged her across the globe only to abandon her."

"We'd never do that. Heroes, remember?" Billy gave a lop-sided smile. "Honestly, Kate would probably take her in herself if not for the fact that Tommy would freak out. She was the one who found her, after all, and she has a tendency to see things through. As it is, though, we'll have to worry about that once we're all home." Come to think of it... "Maybe Professor X could help. If there's a mutant family out there looking for a kid, I bet he'd know."

"I'm assuming the X in this case stands for Xavier." There was a strange, careful tone to Erik's voice, as though he was afraid of revealing too much.

"That'd be him, yes." Billy gave another wry smile. "Tommy and I have been to the school a couple of times, and we invited pretty much all the kids to our birthday party. Turns out Tony knew the Professor from way back, and, well, he believed our story instantly. Sometimes telepaths are useful, I guess."

"They have their good moments." And still the carefully blank tone. "And what do you think of the school?"

"It's strange, in a way. Not to say I was an expert or anything, but I did know most of the X-Men -- the Professor's team, that is -- on a general level. Knew about their pasts, their personalities, all that. And now... well. The few that are there aren't that different, but it's just... not the same. Only a handful of those who ran the school in our world are still there, and some of them are different ages, or in different relationships, or even have different parents. It's like I've read a story about them, except the author got a whole lot wrong and didn't bother to fact-check."

"That must be rather... disconcerting."

"I'm getting used to it, little by little." He shrugged. "It kind of helps, dealing with the Avengers all the time. The ones we knew... well. It was the same story there. Different pasts, different people, different friends and loves and interests. And every time I wake up, it's a bit easier to remember that this is my reality now and the old ones are nothing but a story I may have read once."

"And when will you have it all figured out?"

"Honestly? I haven't the faintest idea. It's been over a year now, and there's still moments when I'm shocked or surprised by something. And obviously that will wear off with time, and some day this will be all that matters, but... sometimes, something reminds me of the old times, and then I have to spend a day or two reminding myself that Tony isn't out to get me and Hawkeye doesn't have an ex-wife and my first father probably never even existed in this world." And that was the strangest of all, wasn't it, Vision and all that came with him. It was the part of his own past that was nothing but a storybook, his own life that he hadn't even lived through, something he had only ever been familiar with through second-hand stories. Was it even less true than the reality of their old world, then? Or was it the only thing that remained true, because it held no ties to his current life and surroundings?

"Ah, yes. Wanda's husband, wasn't it?" Erik shook his head. "So much that she has missed..."

"Well, it didn't exactly end all that happily in our world, either." Billy grimaced. "I mean, yeah, she had children, but then she lost them and kind of broke the world. Which is not to say she's likely to be happy with you, but... perhaps what you caused isn't the worst fate that could have been bestowed on her."

"You're young still, and there's much you have yet to learn." And Erik was old, and had lived through more than most people could ever hope or fear to. "Believe me, as one who has lived through such... For all my pain, I'm happier to have had my children and then lost them, through my fault or not, than if I had never been given the chance to begin with."

"Right." Billy swallowed. "I -- I'm sorry."

"Don't be. As I said, it's not something you could have learned. And, frankly, I would be rather happy if you never learned that particular pain." There was a brief silence. "Perhaps we both ought to get some more sleep. Tomorrow things will change, for better or worse."

"I suppose." And now he felt tired in a way that had nothing to do with physical exertion or the overuse of his magic, and not even with his budding headache, though he hoped it would find some relief in sleep.

Even as he padded quietly back to the bedroom, though, he did not waste his time even imagining Erik would go to sleep.


	8. Lost and Found

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony has noticed a very alarming fact about this whole stolen magic thing, and for once, Strange agrees with him, which can't mean anything good. Meanwhile Billy does, actually, find Wanda and Pietro, which leads to yelling aplenty. However, the word must get to Billy, and even then he has to deal with the very opinionated forces of his not-quite-family... and hopefully not cause Teddy too much grief.

Tony was in one of his moods again.

It might have been insulting to think that, except it was Tony himself thinking it, so obviously it was just prudent self-perception. He had hardly closed his eyes all night, running figures that were irritatingly unscientific and exhilaratingly complicated. Now, having reached an hour that was considered decent enough for most people to be upright, he was collecting a little war council in his lab. Steve was there, of course, with most of the other Avengers scattered about the room in various states of wakefulness. Jane was tapping away at his biggest holographic screen, bringing up figures and charts, and Doctor Strange was standing in the middle of it all, appearing all too serene.

Tony wasn't even sure why Strange was there. He certainly didn't know how to call the man, yet here he was, just as they required an expert opinion. Wasn't that just awfully… convenient.

"I think," Tony said, glancing around at what his team currently consisted of, "that we might have figured out the reason for the ice giants appearing. And may I just say, I don't like it one bit."

"It's about ice giants appearing, though. Nobody's going to like it anyway." Clint frowned, leaning against a wall. "It's not an invasion, is it? I've got just about enough of alien invasions for a couple of lifetimes."

"Not an invasion, no. At least, not one orchestrated from their end." Jane pointed at a couple of charts that made sense to Tony, but that was because he had spent half of the previous night comparing and contrasting them. "These here are the readings from the central park. There are energy spikes, yes, but none of them should be big enough to carry anyone all the way from Jotunheim, never mind a group as big as you fought. The actual power must have come from elsewhere."

"And wouldn't you know it, there was free power available." Tony indicated another chart. "Not that we have any accurate measurements, but from the looks of it, the wave of power from Billy's little experiment just might have been enough both to give the good agent a new body and to let the giants enter our world."

"He certainly has the raw power at his grasp." Strange nodded. "Whether that is how it ended up working is another matter. I doubt he would have directed his magic to such ends, and even chaos magic does at least attempt to follow the intentions of its user."

"Except this wasn't just his magic." Steve frowned. "There was Loki's, too, stored in the scepter. Couldn't that have redirected the excess energy? I mean, from what I've understood, technically Jotunheim was his home world."

"It might well be possible." Strange gave a slow nod, looking at the figures Jane had presented. "Two kinds of chaos magic clashing; one of them is from another world, the other often uses his powers for teleportation. Portals to that world would certainly be a potential outcome."

"It matches the timing, too, and not just for the first time." Tony pointed at the list of times at the side of the print-out. "Assuming Jane's readings of the energy spike at the time of the original ritual are correct, the ice giants appeared right after he was done with it. Now, almost as soon as he was done with taking the magic back, there's another invasion. Either it creates portals or weakens barriers so it's easier to do so." He already felt a headache coming up. Splendid. Just what he needed, a lot of magic to deal with.

"There weren't any ice giants popping up when we were hopping around, though." Clint frowned. "I'm pretty sure we'd have heard if there was a mini-invasion in the middle of Tokyo."

"That was different, though. Your quasi-random teleportations were the random effect in that case, not an intended outcome. There wasn't excess energy to speak of because the effect was only ever as strong as the emotional state that triggered it."

"If that's the case," Teddy stepped forward, "doesn't that mean it could happen again? Like, the moment Billy tries to find Wanda, or come home, or do whatever else he's set as his errand?"

"Not quite so. It wouldn't be triggered by just any instance of his magic, certainly not something as familiar as transporting himself." Well, that was a small relief at least, even if it was coming from a man in a cape that looked like it would have been right at home in a Dracula special. "In such tasks, his magic can regulate itself. However, I do believe it might and will be triggered should he attempt anything that he does not have experience with."

"So finding people and going places is safe." Kate gave a slow nod. "But, say, trying to turn someone into a frog in the middle of a battle might mean a sudden appearance of sentient ice cubes."

"I don't like the sound of that." Tony sighed. "Thor? Exactly how intelligent are these ice giants, anyway?"

"At one time, I would have said they were little more than dumb beasts." Thor shook his head. "However, knowing what I do now, I have to disagree. After all, Loki was one of them, and I do not believe I have ever seen a soul more cunning and devious." The funny thing was, this sounded more like praise than anything.

"So they're basically sentient, at least. And we pretty much have to assume there will be some who are as intelligent as Loki, because we'd be idiots to only prepare for the best possible scenario." Tony nodded. "Now, with that in mind, there is one question I'm forced to ask." One question he really would have rather not asked.

Steve frowned. "And what would that be?"

"Since we're going to presume they're intelligent, do they also have enough information to be able to exploit these portals from their end?"

*

"So." Billy finished moving the furniture around, leaving an empty patch in the middle of Erik's combined living and dining room. Not that he needed too much space, but things just felt easier when he had enough room for a proper circle. And because confidence was a major factor in his magic, he would have been an idiot not to give himself every possible advantage. "Are we all ready?"

"Yeah!" Ororo gave him an innocent smile. "I ate all of my breakfast!"

"Indeed she did." Erik stepped closer, his fingers brushing the top of her head in an absentminded manner. "What exactly is our plan, then?"

"First, we'll form a circle. Then I'm going to cast a spell to find Pietro." Billy gave him a serious look, adjusting his cape mostly to give his hands something to do. "I could try for Wanda, but there's too much of a chance of her magic getting in the way, even if she hasn't cast any actual wards. However, if we do locate Pietro, chances are he'll be able to get us to Wanda as well."

"Right." Erik nodded. "And is there anything I have to do?"

"Aside from standing in the circle and focusing your thoughts on Pietro, not really. I'll transport us there once I find him. After that, it's all up to you. I won't interfere unless he turns out to be actively hostile."

"I suppose I should thank you for that."

"Well, I don't want you dead, so I won't let him kill you." Well, he wouldn't, if he had time to get in the way. Pietro was, after all, very fast to say the least. "I might even speak to him, but that's all. I won't use my magic to convince either of them to do anything they wouldn't of their own free will."

"And I wouldn't ask you to." Erik shook his head. "All I want is their forgiveness. It would not mean much if it were coerced by means of magic."

"Indeed." Billy gave a faint smile. "So, if we're all quite ready, let's form a circle, all right?" Unlike Ororo, he hadn't eaten breakfast; he'd been too nervous to do so. Which didn't make any sense, really; it wasn't like this was related to him in any way. Whatever he had been in another world had no bearing in this one. The other Wanda hadn't even recognized him at first. For this Wanda, there was nothing to recognize.

"Right!" Ororo skipped to the center of the room. "What do I do?"

"Just take my hand, here," he said, reaching a hand to her. "And then take Erik's hand in your other." He also reached out a hand to Erik as he stepped up to close the circle. "You don't have to do anything else."

"I hope you can do it, though!"

"Yes, that is certain to help." Erik's hand closed over his, a firm grip but not too much of one. There was a sensation of warmth there that he wasn't sure was entirely explicable by body heat.

Billy closed his eyes for a moment, focusing his thoughts. Pietro. Not the Pietro he had known, he had to make that distinction clear, the last thing he needed was taking them over to another world again. Another Pietro, though, the one this Erik was thinking of, the one in this world. His lips formed around the words that slid out of their own accord, repeating over and over. "I wish to find Pietro. I wish to find Pietro. I wish --"

There was a surprised sound from Ororo as Billy felt his feet leaving the ground, then a smaller grunt from Erik. He supposed this meant his magic had reached them as well, taking them up to the air. Well, he supposed that was the least strange thing that could have happened. At least it meant something was indeed happening.

He tried to focus his thoughts on the one thing he wished to happen, fighting against the headache that threatened to form. His eyes opened, just a little, but enough for him to see the blue glow filling the air around them. Magic at work. Yes, this was good, this was --

The world lurched around them. It was teleportation, and yet not quite so. When he worked toward a location, that was all his magic was doing, bending space between two end points and bringing them together. Here, he was adding another variable, was searching a person instead of a place, a favorable situation elsewhere in space but not in time. It was different enough to give even him a slightly queasy feeling, however used he was to his own teleports.

His feet hit the ground a bit harder than might have been necessary, and he opened his eyes the rest of the way, blinking as the last remnants of light faded away. They were on a dirt road somewhere, a fairly rural area if he was any judge, certainly outside any kind of a city or even a proper town. There were a couple of houses in sight, well away from each other and any other signs of civilization, fields and small gatherings of trees filling the space in between. And the road, the one single road cutting through the landscape, making small branches to reach the houses. There weren't any vehicle tracks on its surface.

"Well, we certainly got somewhere." Erik let go of his hand, looking around. "And this is supposed to be where we find Pietro?"

"It's not always very precise," Billy had to admit. "When I went looking for Wanda in the other world, I only got to the same village, and even that was... well. It wasn't exactly precise, is my point. But we'll find him here."

"Maybe he lives in one of those houses." Ororo pointed their way. "They look like nice houses."

"Well, they're certainly lived in." They were some ways away, but even so Billy could tell the closer house had a well-tended garden, too nice for it to be abandoned. "And if nothing else, we can always ask --"

He didn't finish his sentence. There wouldn't have been any point to it, not when he looked back toward Erik and spotted a figure in the distance, approaching along the road. A figure that was doing so rather too fast to be just anyone.

As he had expected, he didn't have much time to react. Pietro was there in a moment, and then, with barely enough time for his face to twist in anger, his hand flew toward Erik's face in a fist, only stopped by a hastily thrown shield by Billy. To his credit, Erik didn't even flinch. If anything, he just looked resigned.

"What the fuck is this about?" Pietro took a step back, snarling at them. He had been carrying a bag of groceries in one hand, Billy realized, the utter mundanity of it almost making him feel dizzy. "Why are you here?"

"I am here to talk." Erik didn't try to approach, didn't back away. "And you might do well to mind your language in front of the child."

"Oh, isn't that rich. Sure, tell me off for my language. And what about everything you've done, huh? Want me to start listing all the things you shouldn't have done?"

"Regardless of what either of you might have done," Billy said, and to his astonishment his voice didn't even waver, "I will not let either of you harm the other. So you might as well step back a bit."

"Oh? And who gave you the right to do that?" Pietro threw him a quick glare. "You're supposed to be a hero, aren't you? I saw you on TV, once. Not after that, though."

"I suppose not, no." Erik shook his head. "It upsets Wanda too much, does it not?"

"What do you know about how Wanda feels?" Pietro's hands clenched into fists again. "What do you care? You certainly made it clear enough just how much of a damn you give about either of us."

"You attacked me." Erik's voice was level, yet Billy imagined he might have heard the slightest waver underneath it. "I was only defending myself. I never intended to cause serious harm to either of you."

"Well, in that case, your plan failed. Like they always do." Pietro shook his head. "So what is it? You decided you hadn't taken enough from us, so you enlist a so-called hero to come harass us?"

"I only wish to talk." Erik extended a hand, palm up, a peaceful gesture that went ignored. "Young William agreed to assist me. At first I thought he must have been your son, but it appears I was wrong. Even so, he was kind enough to help me regardless."

"Yeah, sorry, haven't really gotten around to making you a grandpa. No idea why the boy looks so similar, but I can promise you he's not mine."

"As I said, I already gathered that." Erik paused, looking at Pietro closely for a moment. "You do not have children."

"None." The word came out in a harsh breath. "Never had time for that kind of thing, never found anyone to have them with. And even if I had found the time and the right partner, I wouldn't have."

"Because of Wanda." It was not a guess, just a quiet admission of guilt.

"It was all she wanted, you know." Pietro's voice dropped down as well. "All she ever wanted was a world where she could raise a family without worrying. And you took that away from her, just like that."

"I never meant to." At least Erik was sincere. "I would have never done that, not on purpose. I know all too well the pain of losing a child."

"Yeah, well, you never gave her the opportunity to feel even that." Pietro shook his head. "And now you come here, with this -- this mockery of a mutant, and expect what, exactly? For us to welcome you with open arms?"

"I never expected such generosity, no. I certainly never earned it." Erik took a step back. "All I was hoping for was the chance to speak to you. To prove that I have changed, perhaps." His gaze dropped, along with his voice. "I certainly never expected to be forgiven, not really."

"Except Wanda would." Pietro's voice was somewhere between a whisper and a disdainful spit. "She never did know what was the best for her. Too eager to believe the best in people, until she's lost all she has to give."

"Ah, yes. I do believe I know the type." And just what was Erik looking at him for?

"Even so, Wanda should have the right to make that choice for herself." And why was Billy speaking up, now? He should have just stayed quiet and made sure neither of them went for the other's throat. That, and held onto Ororo's hand as it sought his. "I know you're just trying to protect her, but speaking as someone who is the younger sibling, she might not thank you for that. She should have the right to face things herself, even the difficult ones, and make up her own mind instead of having you make the decisions for her."

"And what's it to you, anyway?" Pietro turned his glare toward Billy, now. "Why are you helping him in the first place? Do you even know who he is, what he has done?"

"More than you know, I believe." Because he had also known another Erik, one who had done much more evil, and yet also more good. "And I know Wanda has a bad tendency for forgiveness, for all that she has a temper. I know she can do terrible things in pain and in anger, and I know she would always regret any such things, and seek to atone. I know she would wish to speak with her father herself, whether to forgive him or to send him away, as is her decision. And for all that I promise I will not let your father hurt her any further, not aside from whatever pain might come from bringing up old wounds."

"And who do you think you are, making that kind of promises?"

"William Magnus Stark." He resisted the urge to let his cape flutter in a wind that wasn't there. This wasn't the time for theatrics, not now. "Also known as Billy, or Wiccan. Or, if you ask SHIELD, Azure Witch." Yes, he had seen the file. Just as he now saw the flicker of emotion behind the cold eyes. He was getting there. "There are other names I could give you, too, but they wouldn't matter to you. Really, there is only one thing about me you might wish to know."

"Oh?" There was suspicion in Pietro's eyes, yes, but also a growing hint of intrigue. "And what's that?"

"I can heal your sister."

Pietro paused, only for a fraction of a moment, which Billy knew was so much longer for someone like him. Then, he was gone, disappearing down the road even faster than he had arrived.

"Well, that was that," Erik murmured. "I suppose it was the best we could do."

"He'll be back." Billy wasn't even sure how he knew that, but he was certain of it, as certain as he was that the sky above them was blue. "He just has to speak with Wanda first."

He wasn't sure if Erik believed him, wasn't sure if he should have believed him, not until he saw the two figures coming out of the house closest along the road, now moving at a more peaceful pace. One of them was Pietro, that was clear enough from the white hair even from a distance, while the other was shorter, slighter, with a cascade of dark hair around her shoulders.

Billy glanced at Erik, gave him a small smile, and prepared to face the Scarlet Witch.

*

"This isn't making any sense." Teddy frowned at the screen. "Far as SHIELD knows, they're alive. That means they must be on record somewhere."

"Not necessarily." Kate sighed. "I mean, they could have just simply moved out of the country, and that alone would slow us down a lot. Never mind that there really aren't many records where you can find someone without fail, not if they use a false name. We might have luck with driver's licenses, but then it's unlikely they would have those. With Pietro around, who'd ever use a car?"

"Kate's unfortunately right." Tommy's hands were a blur above three sets of keyboards, his eyes darting between different screens to see the results. "And I've already run through all the major social media sites. No hits there, either."

"We're looking for all the obvious names, aren't we? Not just the official ones?" Of course, he knew Tommy was thinking about this just as hard as he was, if not more. It was about his brother, after all. Even so, the mere fact that they had yet to find results was extremely disheartening.

"Yes, yes. Maximoffs, Eisenhardts, Lehnsherrs, everything. I've even got JARVIS running through searches of Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch in half a dozen languages on the side. So far there's no hits, though. Nor anything apparently interesting in any of the places of residence SHIELD has on record."

"You'd think SHIELD would at least know where they are." Teddy resisted the urge to pace. His pacing tended to wear grooves on the floor when he forgot himself. "I mean, when does SHIELD not know everything?"

"If they do, it's under careful lock and key." Tommy shook his head. "I'm hacking through their files best as I can, of course, and probably so's Tony, but so far I haven't unearthed anything that would help us. After they fought their daddy dearest, Wanda was hurt badly. After she was released from medical, they left without a word, and haven't been heard from since. And let's face it, if anyone could give SHIELD the slip, those two would at least have a fighting chance. Not everyone can literally just run through a couple of states and set up shop elsewhere."

"They emptied their bank accounts somewhere in Alabama the following week," Kate added. "That's the last of any records we have of Pietro and Wanda Maximoff. Nothing after that, at least as far as SHIELD is concerned."

"I think Steve was thinking of asking Fury nicely." Tommy paused. "Well, as nicely as Steve ever does when he's worried, which is more like politely restrained shouting. Still, I'm not fond of his chances as long as we can't prove Billy's with them. Fury can't be a big fan of ice giants, either, but he's also not overly fond of letting us into his secret files, or even admitting he has secret files. Until there's another invasion or we can definitely prove that having access to that information would help us prevent another one, he's not going to budge. And that's assuming they have anything hidden away."

"This just isn't fair." Teddy sighed. "Anything from the comm link?"

"Ah, yeah. It was in one place through the night, then disappeared just a little while ago. Haven't pinpointed it yet after that, but we're working on it." Tommy's fingers tapped at a key with a bit more force than was strictly necessary. "Once we get him home, you'd better put him on a leash."

"Not sure how he'd take to that, though Darcy did promise to buy a collar for when he comes back." Even if the implication had been it would be for Teddy to wear. Teddy chuckled, mostly because it was the only way he was holding off any inconvenient sobs.

"And that's far too much information for me, ever." Tommy punctuated this with another strong keystroke. "So how about you keep it quiet, okay?"

"Oh, I don't know." There was a teasing tone to Kate's voice, and Teddy wasn't even sure which one of them she was supposed to be teasing, though he had a suspicion it was mostly just to keep things light and not entirely desperate. "I think there is some merit to this train of thought. Perhaps there are some plans you would like to share, Teddy?"

A polite cough interrupted them before Teddy could blush more than halfway. The interesting thing being, there wasn't a throat to give off the cough. "Master Tommy?" JARVIS's voice floated above them with the tones of one who could take the conversation, certainly, it wasn't like he had any capacity for embarrassment left after years upon years of dealing with Tony Stark, yet something in his circuits was still rebelling against the thought of combining the image of certain people with the baffling marvels of biology that humans tended to lean towards. "There is something you might want to take a gander at."

"What?" Tommy's head snapped up sharply. "JARVIS, you got a hit?"

"Not precisely, I'm afraid." And there was JARVIS's hedging tone, the one that wouldn't promise anything yet wished to convey some hope at least. "It's less of a hit and more a convergence of terms that come very close to what you want. Something that, if I were to say so, might run a chance of being a composition of disguised elements."

"So there's a bunch of things that look like they're twisted keywords, and alone they're not enough to be important, but it's pretty unlikely so many of them would be in the same place." Much though Teddy liked JARVIS, sometimes a good summary was indeed needed. "Let's see about that."

"I've got it up here, it seems." Kate turned toward the screen she had been working on as a new window flashed onto the screen. She read the text for a moment, then suddenly burst out laughing.

"What?" Teddy frowned, hurrying closer. "What is it? What's so funny?"

"'Wilda, the Widdlest Witch,'" Kate read from the screen. "'This delightful series of illustrated adventures for young children is created by the brother-sister pair, Sandra and Peter Iceheart. Starting with the colorful new classic, Magic of Mercury, the adventures of widdle Wilda take you through --' Oh, this can't be. It's just too ridiculous."

"And yet, it's a bit too close for comfort." Tommy was by her side now, settling a hand on her shoulder. "A witch, called Wilda, and her first adventure was about Mercury. And the authors' names can't be a coincidence, either. See, there's even -- is there a picture?"

"No photos. Clever of them, SHIELD would have picked up on those the moment they went online." Kate clicked to reveal the pictures in the author information. "Drawings, though, of a man with very blond hair and a woman with very dark hair. Not exactly proof, but it does lend some credence to the theory."

"At the moment, I'll take just about anything." Teddy sighed. "Is there any way of contact on the site?"

"Just an e-mail address for fanmail." Kate scrolled through the site. "However, right now, we have names. Sure, they're pennames, but pennames at least have traces. And since they're published, someone at the publisher's will have to have their contact information."

"And any publisher's database is notably easier to break into than SHIELD's." Tommy was off on his own main terminal again. "Okay, let's get moving. If we're wrong, we'll only have wasted one phone call."

"And if we're right," oh, please, please let them be right, "we just might get to Billy before anything too terrible happens."

It might have been asking for miracles, but then, Billy seemed to excel in delivering those.

*

Wanda sighed as what had been a tentative silence at best gave way for another wave of shouting from the living room. She wasn't even sure she could tell apart her brother's voice from their father's; they were yelling on top of each other as much as not, so it was getting tricky. Well, she hadn't really been too hopeful.

The child looked over to the doorway, drawing Wanda's gaze there, too. The young man, Billy, walked in, looking somewhat unsettled. "I take it they didn't agree to listen to reason." She didn't bother to pretend it was a question.

"Well, we reached a compromise." Billy sighed, leaning against the wall. He looked just about ready to beat his head against it. She wouldn't have blamed him; she if anyone knew just how difficult the two could be. "And by compromise I mean a barrier between them, so neither of them can actually attack the other."

"I suppose that is the best we can hope for now, really." Wanda gave him a small smile, then glanced over at the child sitting on the counter. "Are you all right, dear? I'm afraid we don't exactly have toys in the house, but I do have some books, if you are getting bored."

"Um." The girl frowned, looking a bit awkward. "I can't read."

"That's quite fine. They have plenty of pictures in them." She smiled at the girl. "How about we get them here, and you can read them while Billy here helps me make some lunch for everyone?"

"Yeah!" Now, the child smiled, hopping lightly down from the counter. Wanda glanced at Billy, who nodded his agreement. Well, she had known it was somewhat rude to volunteer him like that without asking him first, but at least he didn't seem too offended.

They returned soon enough with a pile of books for the girl to read, managing to avoid being drawn into the ongoing argument between Pietro and Erik. As Wanda helped the girl, Ororo, settle at the kitchen table with the books, she noticed Billy looking at her curiously.

"You're wondering why I have these books." As he nodded, she gave a slight chuckle. "I wrote them, actually. Well, I wrote them, Pietro took care of the illustrations. It's good enough a living, as we can get them out quite frequently, and doesn't require either of us to leave the house much. It's a peaceful life, and that's all we wish for."

"That sounds great." Now, he smiled, and it was good to see at last. He had been frowning most of the time. "I, ah. My fiancé likes drawing. I know he dreams of illustrating something some day, though his interests run more along the lines of comics."

"Oh, that sounds wonderful." Wanda started going through the pantry, thinking of what she could make. "So. Apparently you knew things about us you really shouldn't."

"Uh. I do and I don't." Was he actually squirming? "It's -- well. The truth is, I'm from another world. And over there, I knew Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. Well, I met them once or twice, I really just knew of them, is more the truth. But it was enough for me to have some idea of how you might react."

"Well, you were certainly correct in that I prefer to make my own decisions."

"Yes, well, that's mostly just what I've learned from having a somewhat protective older twin." His lips curled, probably in memory of some incident or another from his own life.

"They have a tendency to meddle, yes." She paused. "This other me. What was her life like? I mean, as far as you know?"

He hesitated, now. "Are you sure you want to know?"

"Yes, I am." She nodded. "I won't be too upset, I promise, by things I didn't have or things I did and she didn't. I know all too well the endless possibilities, and how useless it is to wish to change the past."

"Not useless, as much as dangerous." He sighed. "She... well. She fell in love, married, and had two beautiful sons." Then, just as she started to smile, he continued, "Then she lost her children, and her husband, and probably her sanity. She did terrible things and lost everything, and now her sons are back but they aren't hers, and her husband is back but he wouldn't have her back or admit to ever having had their children."

"Ah." Wanda paused, turning that over in her head. "And did she find you, in the end?" He seemed startled, and Wanda gave him a faint smile. "Please. You are the spitting image of my brother at your age, aside from your coloring. And even aside from that, the way you act would be quite enough to give me clues. I may have chosen to set myself aside from the world, but please, do not take me to be stupid."

"Right. Sorry." Billy sighed. "It... well. We found her, is more like it. And now she's working to fix things, which is good. From what I can tell, her mind's better, now, too. At least she's as mentally well as can be expected of anyone in our blasted bloodline."

"You seem stable enough."

"Sure I am, up until the moment depression or self-destructiveness takes over. I'm lucky enough to have people around me to pull me back from the worst of it, but I have little room to criticize anyone else's mental state."

"I suppose that's fair enough." She paused. "Pietro said something else, too."

"Oh?" He raised his eyebrows. "And what was that?"

"He said you claimed you could heal me."

For a moment, Billy was quiet, then he started talking very quickly. "Yes. I mean, no, I'm not a healer, not exactly. But I do have magic, and my magic can do a lot of things, and I've healed people before. It doesn't work if I don't really want it to, but I think I would want it enough. And in any case I'd ask my teacher first, he's both a sorcerer and a medical doctor so I'm sure he could help me with it, but it's really just --"

"Breathe, my dear boy." She gave him a small smile. "Thank you for the offer, but really, I don't need it."

"Oh?" He blinked. "What do you mean?"

"I'm not a young woman anymore, Billy. Oh, I know I am physically more fit than I have any right to be at my age, just as my father doesn't appear his age, but even so, even if I had never been injured I believe my childbearing days would be long over. I might consider it if I actually had someone to start a family with, but there isn't anyone, just Pietro and myself as there always has been. And besides," her smile softened, "I'm quite happy with my life as it is."

"You are?" He frowned. "But -- you're just here, in one place. You shouldn't be hiding like this."

"It's not the life I dreamed of, that's for sure. However, it's not a bad life, either. I have my brother, a garden to tend, and a job giving children delight, even if they're not mine and indeed I will never see them. Believe me, I am happy, in my way." She paused. "Really, my only regret is that I have kept Pietro from finding a life of his own."

"Yet if you asked him, he would say it's fine, he doesn't need anything, and besides someone has to be looking after you and it might just as well be him."

"I suppose that would be the general gist of it, yes." She chuckled a bit. "I see certain tendencies indeed run in the family."

"Let's just say my brother has more in common with Pietro than just their speed and premature white hair." Billy walked closer, now. "So, you need help with cooking? I'm not an expert, but I'm very good at helping. Teddy likes to cook, and I like to help him, so I've picked up a lot."

"If you wouldn't mind." She smiled. "It's nice, cooking for more than two for once. Of course, that's assuming Pietro will let me put our father and cutlery at the same table."

"I could just threaten to turn them both into frogs if either of them tries anything." The boy was smiling, but she wasn't entirely certain he was joking.

"I'm sure that won't be necessary." At least, not for now.

They were almost done with the lunch as her phone rang. That was somewhat surprising. The only one who ever called was her agent, the main reason she had got herself the thing in the first place, and she couldn't think of any reason for him to be calling now. With a murmured apology she stepped aside to where the phone sat at the corner of the counter, looking at it. Not her agent. Well, wasn't that interesting.

For a moment she considered not answering, but then decided to do so anyway. After all, the worst that could happen was a telemarketer. "Sandra Iceheart, speaking." She glanced at Billy, but he didn't seem surprised.

"Ah, Miss Maximoff, is it? This is Steven Rogers, of the Avengers." It was a good thing she had nothing but the phone in her hand, because she just might have dropped something. "I do apologize for the intrusion, but I'm afraid we need to speak with Billy urgently."

"I... right." She didn't ask how they had got her number or her name, didn't ask how they had known where to look for Billy. If they had any inclination to tell her, they would do so eventually, and if it was a secret, asking wouldn't change things. "I'll just pass this on to him. Just a moment."

Billy blinked in surprise as she offered the phone to him, but took it. "What is... Steve?" A surprised tone, but not an unpleasant surprise. Well, that was something. "How did you -- no, it's nothing, I just --" All of a sudden he turned pale, leaning one hand on the counter. "Are you sure?"

"Billy?" Ororo looked up from the book she had been studying, frowning. "Is Billy all right?"

"I hope so, sweetheart." Wanda reached to pet her hair, her eyes fixed on the worried young man. "I certainly hope so."

Somehow she got the feeling that her day was only going to get stranger.

*

"What do you mean, you have to leave?" Erik frowned at Billy over the table. The boy looked pale, he noted, and kept fiddling with his cutlery.

Of course, his family being what it was, the answer came from Pietro instead of the boy. "Typical," his son snorted. "First you drag him off all the way here, and then start interrogating him when he says he'd rather be home. Remind me, is there anyone who is allowed a life outside of what fits in with your grand plans for humanity?"

"Pietro, please." Wanda sighed, glancing at Billy. "Billy, dear, what is it? You looked so shocked during the call."

"I -- there's something going on." Billy's eyes were fixed on his plate, now, his fork toying with his food. "Something that might be dangerous, and I need to see to it. Of course, I'll get everyone where they belong first, I wouldn't leave you stranded here."

"In other words, get me out of the house and Ororo out of the way." Erik never saw any reason not to get straight to the heart of the matter. "So what is this incredibly dangerous thing that suddenly demands your attention, but isn't too urgent for us to have a meal first?"

The boy seemed to hesitate for a moment, before he sighed. "It's my magic."

"What about it?" Wanda blinked. "I didn't notice anything wrong with it." Well, she probably would have known if there was something immediately amiss.

"There isn't, not when I'm not using it." He stuck his fork through a piece of carrot in a rather savage fashion. "However, they think my magic's causing the ice giant appearances. Well, my magic combined with Loki's. So if I try something new, there might be another invasion, and I really don't want that to happen here in your kitchen."

"Well, that's quite considerate of you." For all that she was the most emotional of them, Wanda was true credit to the family name as her expression didn't waver a bit at the suggestion that not causing an ice giant invasion inside her house was just basic good manners. "So what are you going to do about it?"

"Doctor Strange says I should be able to purify my magic of Loki. And, well, considering he's my teacher, I kind of have to believe him or there isn't much point in my listening to him in any situation." Billy stuck the carrot in his mouth, chewing and swallowing before he went on. "They figured the best place for that would be in the first place Loki came to Earth, which just conveniently happens to have the deserted site of a former SHIELD facility nearby. Which is important, considering that the act of purifying my magic will probably cause another portal to open, and they're worried the giants are just waiting for another chance to get in. That way, the others can be there to take the giants down when they appear, but there aren't any civilians running about who could get in danger."

"Seems like a sensible plan to me." Erik nodded. "And I take it you're hoping to get that done as soon as possible?"

Billy nodded. "I'm sorry for cutting this so short," he added in an apologetic tone. As though anyone was likely to be sorry, Erik mused. Pietro certainly would be absolutely delighted to see him go. "They just don't want to take any chances, and frankly, I don't either. My magic's caused enough mischief even without turning Earth into an inter-realm travel hub."

"And you think you will be able to purify your magic without much problem?"

"Aside from the fact that it will probably call on more giants, yeah. It shouldn't be much more complicated than my basic meditation. I just need to locate the foreign magic within me and push it out, that's all."

"Indeed." Wanda tilted her head to the side in a thoughtful gesture. "Although in my experience, magic is rarely simple or easy to deal with."

"Yes, well, I've got to keep believing it'll be simple, or it won't be just because I think so. Magic's difficult at the best of times, and mine's trickier than most."

"One could say that, I suppose." Wanda gave a faint smile. "And where is this safe site you are supposed to get to?"

"New Mexico. The others should already be on their way there; they'll call when they get to the place. I haven't been there before, of course, but once Teddy gets there, finding my way won't take a moment." His fingertips brushed against the ring, the gem pulsing with a steady green glow. Erik wasn't even sure he was consciously aware of the gesture, it seemed so... uncomplicated.

"So you have some time before that, then." Wanda gave a decisive nod. "Good. I want you to finish your meal, and then have a nice nap. Don't think I haven't seen you rubbing your temples, you're obviously in need of some rest. Conflicting magics are never pleasant, and being injured would only make matters worse."

"Oh, I couldn't. I can't risk you any more than I already have." Billy looked pained. But of course. A hero like him would never like the idea of putting innocents in danger, even if he had not been a knowing participant in any way.

"Nonsense. You already said the danger is in you using your magic. If it would ease your mind, I'm sure I can muster up enough magical knowledge to put up some wards so you can't cast any accidental spells in your sleep or anything. And in any case, you will have to stay here until the call, won't you?" She smiled at him, the smile of those who are pleased to know their orders will be followed, and cannot even consider the possibility that they might not. It wasn't precognition as much as extreme confidence and perhaps just the slightest hint of threat.

"Except these two will be at each other's throats if nobody's watching them."

"True enough, but I will be here. Rest assured I have even more experience with dealing with such characters than you do, I have belonged to this family much longer, after all. Besides, I'm sure neither of them would stoop to actual bloodshed, not with me and little Ororo here." And again that smile. Oh, of course they would do as she said, or else, now there's a good man. "And unless they absolutely need to continue shouting, I would actually be rather curious to hear about what my dear father has been doing as of late."

"Ah. Right." Erik found himself nodding before he even thought of doing anything else. Of course he would talk, it wasn't like he had any other options, not with Wanda looking at him like that. Her mother's eyes, and her mother's smile, and a hint of danger that she had got from him instead. Sometimes, during his years of self-imposed exile, he did forget for a while just how powerful he could be if he truly wanted to. And sometimes, such as when he was faced with this particular smile, he remembered that he was not even close to the most fearsome mutant out there.

"Well, it's settled, then." Wanda clapped her hands. "We'll all eat, and then Billy will have a much-needed nap while we wait for further news. Oh, and I suppose I will have to try and recall the proper magics for changing our clothes, too. Desert does get so hot, after all."

"Wanda!" Ah, finally Pietro deigned to join the conversation again. "You're not going along!"

"Of course I'm not. Not alone, at any rate." Wanda gave a small sniff, as though the mere idea was utterly beneath consideration. "We are all going, Pietro. And no, I will not hear any arguments. If things turn out not to be quite so simple, they will undoubtedly need someone with magical expertise at hand, and I don't think we should count on Billy being able to handle that after his effort. Cutting away magic, even when it isn't your own, can be quite the painful experience. And of course you wouldn't let me go alone that close to a SHIELD operation, would you? You do distrust them so."

"There's nothing trustworthy about them, that's why," Pietro growled. "And what do you care if they need you or not? The world's got more than enough heroes, and we decided ages ago it doesn't matter whether SHIELD needs us."

"And I quite agree. The world does not need us, and frankly, I do not wish to concern myself with the needs of SHIELD. I've given enough for their cause as it is." She paused, letting that sink in just for a moment before finishing, "However, it does appear that my son has need of me, and in that situation, I can't very well stand back and pretend I'm not involved."

"Ah. I'm -- I'm not your son, though." And why did the poor boy look so very pained by this fact? "Not in this world. Or in this life, really."

"Of course, I know that. But in another world, in another life, you were, and that seems to be the closest I'm ever going to get. And, frankly, it is quite enough for me." Wanda gave him a warm smile, and the sight of that made Erik ache inside. "Now, if you were a proper young man, you would know better than to argue with your mother."

"I'm not a proper young man, though." So why was Billy murmuring instead of speaking up? "Not if you ask the people who think they know what's proper. Gay Jewish mutant geek witch seems to ping pretty much every radar there ever was for impropriety."

"So you're Pietro with magic. I see nothing wrong with this, and certainly no excuses for why you couldn't be sensible. I'm going to be there to help you whether you like it or not, so you could just as well make things easier for us all, hm?" Her smile still didn't waver, bright like a knife's edge in sunlight. Oh, she was definitely his daughter, that was for sure.

He was just going to archive that mention about Pietro for further review later on.

*

Teddy drew Billy into his arms the moment they appeared.

Of course, this was hardly a surprise, as Teddy was what he had directed their little hop towards, not knowing much else about their destination. Thus he was here, right in Teddy's arms, with the rest of his little party standing around them, trying to get their bearings.

"You idiot," Teddy murmured, and yeah, that was just fine. "You absolute idiot."

"Yeah, love you too." Billy leaned against Teddy's chest for a moment, drawing a deep breath of his familiar scent. It was Teddy, as always, a whiff of sweat in the hot air and the slight hint of earthiness that was Hulkling's scales, always lingering even though Teddy was currently in his human form. Then he drew away, just a bit, though he was as reluctant to go as Teddy was to let go of him.

"I missed you." Teddy gave him a faint smile. "Don't you dare ever do that again, you idiot."

"I'll try to avoid being kidnapped, yeah." There was more he should have said, so much more, but there was no time. Not until he had cleaned up this mess he had made. As usual. "I should -- I should fix this."

"Right." Teddy wanted to protest, Billy could tell as much, but he knew just as well that this was their first priority. First, clean up the magic mess, then have happy reunions and serious talks and lots and lots of kisses. "Will it be all right?"

"Ah, yeah. I know what to do." Billy finally stepped out of the circle of Teddy's arms, looking back at Wanda. She seemed a bit uneasy, likely because of the band of Avengers converged some ways away, but gave him a smile as he looked at her. "You'll step in if something goes wrong, right?"

"Right." She nodded. "I am hardly an expert, but I can help if there is any power getting out of hand."

"Thanks." He smiled back at her, then brushed his hand against Teddy's one last time before stepping properly away. "I -- I should get away from everyone. I mean, away from such close distance. Can't know exactly what the magic does, and if the giants start to show up that's even worse."

"You do that." Teddy seemed to be making an effort to hold himself back. Billy wasn't sure what tugged at his heart more, the fact that he was having such trouble staying away or that he managed nevertheless. "If and when the giants show up, we'll take care of that."

"I know you will." And now, he had to get things done before he could relax.

The good thing about their location was, they were in the middle of absolutely nothing. As long as he kept his distance from the others for the moment, he didn't need to worry about anything else. With this in mind, Billy walked out from the slightly higher place where the Avengers were, down to the plain. At least he didn't have to concern himself with unnecessary distractions.

Meditation was something he had gotten very good in his attempts to regain his magic. Lifting himself away from the ground, he settled into a sitting position, closing his eyes. Time to go inside.

There were various ways he could have imagined the magic inside himself. Some methods of visualizing it were better than others, some had very specific purposes. This time he found himself in the middle of a white void, filled with swirling waves of magic, blue and green intermixed as he walked about in the space that wasn't. Some of the waves were warm and familiar, the others cold to the touch. He came to one of the seams, blue on one side and green on the other, and slid his hands in the middle.

With a frown, he concentrated, then tore the two apart.

A shiver ran through him, a reminder that this was all connected to him, that there would be consequences once he finished. That was an acceptable outcome, though. Of course there were consequences if he took something that had stitched itself onto a part of him and flung it away. All he needed to do was delay it until he was done, make sure he didn't leave anything entirely unconnected until he finished the separation. Well, nobody had ever said it was going to be simple.

It wasn't too difficult at first, moving about the tendrils of magic, finding the right spots to separate connections without leaving anything floating about on its own. Outside the void there was something happening, he could tell, magic and other powers fighting to do something, anything, but that wasn't his concern right now. All that mattered was here, just himself, the magic, and --

Someone was watching him.

Of course, this shouldn't have been surprising, as he was likely to be the center of everyone's attention right now. It wasn't even a miracle that he would feel this, as he currently had a very heightened awareness of everything related to himself. However, this was quite different from the curious or fearful eyes of his friends, or even the cold gazes of giants he could feel peering through the thin barriers still separating their worlds. Someone was watching him, as a child might inspect an interesting bug under a magnifying glass, and he had a creeping feeling there was a very short distance to the equivalent of being burned by sunlight.

Gathering his courage, Billy turned toward the feeling of the inspecting gaze, determined to face it head on instead of hiding. He wasn't entirely surprised to find that he wasn't alone in the emptiness inside his mind. There were eyes, a pair of green eyes looking directly at him. There was no apparent person attached to them, not even a hint of a presence, but somehow, he felt cold. As he looked, the eyes faded away, as though they had not been there at all, but the feeling of being watched remained.

Well. If he had been put off by audience, he wouldn't have gotten very far as a superhero.

Eyes or no, he had a job to do. Turning his focus back inside, he continued his task of separating himself from the foreign magic, going through every wave of magic within himself to tell the familiar apart from the strange. Outside him the fabric of realms was tearing itself further apart, he could feel it shattering with each tendril he tore away, each separation causing a spike of energy that opened the portals even further. That, however, was no reason for hesitation. On the contrary, he needed to work all the faster, to stop the process before it went on too long. A broad doorway that only opened for a moment was less worrisome than a narrow tunnel that wouldn't close.

The magic that wasn't his floated in the not-quite-air around him, tempting him, trying to draw him in. There was no reason to separate himself from it, it whispered, trying to convince him of the alternative. All he needed to do was take it in, take it as his own, convert it into his own magic and then there wouldn't be problems any more. It might have been true for all that he knew, might have been false, too. He couldn't know, not without trying it, and if he did try it might have been too late to draw back anymore.

Thankfully, he had no intention of even trying. All he wanted was to get all this foreign power away from himself, to cut clean through the parts where the two kinds of magic were threatening to merge, not leave anything from the outside attached to himself. Better lose a fraction of his own, if need be, rather than take in influences he wasn't sure he could control.

And then there was nothing, nothing but his own power, familiar and warm as it enveloped him. He worried for a moment about the rest, wondering what he should do with it, not wanting to leave rogue magic free to create havoc. However, before he could come to any conclusion, he could feel someone drawing it away, further and further from his grasp. It might have worried him, except it wasn't any of the giants, nobody anywhere near him. The magic was going away, and, yes, that was all he wanted right now, the magic leaving him and not causing any more problems.

Someone was still watching him, and for a moment, he got the sensation of wonder, or perhaps amusement. Then it was away, and so was the gaze, and he knew that if he had tried to perceive his surroundings he would have found no eyes peering at him from afar.

The relief for that was brief, though, as the delayed backlash of magic gone finally hit him, tearing at every part of him at once, the pain of the separation so cold that it burned.

He might have screamed, or he might have not, but all he knew for sure was that the whiteness gave way for darkness.

*

Teddy did not like this.

This was, of course, hardly a surprise. He never took much of a liking to anything that would potentially put Billy in danger, and considering the less than stellar self-preservation instincts of his beloved boyfriend, quite a few things had the potential to put Billy in danger. All in all, Teddy was rarely content if he wasn't right by Billy's side to make sure he was all right, and he had now spent several days unable to ascertain this to himself.

It couldn't be helped, though. However much he might have liked to, this was something he could not aid Billy with. Had there been a monster to fight, or even a villain to outwit, he would have stopped at nothing to fight his way to Billy's side, no matter what anyone thought of it. However, magic was something he had no say in.

All he could offer were his claws, when and where Billy needed them.

Nobody said anything, though he doubted anyone would have had anything more to say than he did. They stood quietly as Billy walked away, looking at each other and Billy in turns, nobody sure if they should have spoken at all.

They were on higher ground, the Avengers to one side, Teddy and Billy's entourage some ways away. Billy made his way down to the desert floor, away from everyone, before he started quite easily walking up to the air. As Teddy watched, he sat down as easily as he had been on the floor of his room back in the Tower, a small figure floating above the featureless desert.

There was nothing more beautiful.

Wind picked up, throwing the hot air about, making Billy's cape flutter about his immobile figure as he started to glow. It was faint at first, only visible as Teddy looked closely, but then it started to grow, spreading further until he was bright like a small star.

"Billy!" A small voice surprised Teddy, making him look to his side. Ororo rushed forward, escaping from the reaching hands of Wanda. "Billy, wait!"

"Ororo, don't --" Wanda tried to shout for her, but the child ran faster than she really should have been able to. Stumbling down the hill, her feet left the ground, until she was flying away like a leaf caught in the wind. It was, Teddy supposed, rather fitting.

"Don't worry," he said as Wanda made to hurry after her. "I'll get her." Then, before she could protest or question him, he let himself grow. Wanda stepped back, appearing startled, with Pietro looking at him warily. Erik didn't seem surprised, fittingly enough, giving him merely a grim nod.

Of course, just as he spread his wings and took to air, the first ice giants showed up.

It was the first time he was there to see them appear, watching as they seemed to step out of tears in the air, nothing one moment and a huge, lumbering monster the next. He almost halted, then sped forward instead. Now he had even more of a reason to get Ororo away in time.

He didn't notice the brandished spear before it flew through the air, tearing through his wing. With a cry of pain, he started to plummet.

Teddy managed to control his descent enough that he didn't fall down in the middle of the giants, but it was a close thing. He crashed more than landed, his one wing unable to slow him down enough. Someone was running closer, Kate by the looks of it, but his attention wasn't on her. All he could see was Billy, Billy and the tiny figure of Ororo, and the giants appearing between him and them, all brandishing spears or blades. They were all armed, some even armored as much as they could be, and clearly prepared for battle.

Well, at least that answered Tony's question of whether they had figured out enough to exploit the portals or were just accidentally falling through.

His wing was already repairing itself, the scaled skin knitting itself together at a rapid pace, but it was too late. He had fallen behind, now, and the ice giants lumbered in the way, a forest of icy bodies that he couldn't get through if he tried. Flying had already been demonstrated to be a bad idea, and though he knew he could tear through the monsters if he needed to, it was slow, far too slow, it would take time and there was no time.

Then Billy screamed, a pained howl that made his heart ache, before plummeting to the ground, and for all that he knew his body would not allow his heart to fail he was certain it had stopped beating, anyway.


	9. Many Happy Returns

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's trouble, but thankfully Erik has a plan. Afterwards, of course, there are still things to discuss, but at least everyone is coming home at last. And finally, Teddy can sleep.

Ice giants.

Tony may or may not have cursed right into his comm link, flipping up his visor as he came to a halt on a rock above the field. Steve rushed to his side as well, looking down on the open field. "They're completely surrounded."

"Aye, so it seems." Thor landed beside Tony, looking out with a grave expression. "And to make the matters worse, it does seem your son has fallen ill at the worst possible time."

"You don't say." Tony cursed again under his breath as he looked down, seeing his poor kid unconscious on the ground. Billy and Ororo were stranded in the middle of the field, with the giants advancing slowly. Either they weren't very agile with their size, or they merely enjoyed toying with easy prey. It wasn't exactly a fair fight. "If we attack one side, the others will still reach them before we get there. And I can't exactly blast everything with explosives without harming the kids as well."

"There has to be a way," Steve murmured. "At least for now, it seems she's got some magic of her own." He nodded down to where the girl stood over Billy, holding a barrier of what seemed like miniature hurricanes.

"Not magic, but a mutant power," a new voice said. Tony turned to see Magneto approach, Tommy right beside him. "And she will tire before long."

"Yeah, well, we weren't exactly counting on her to keep them at bay forever," Tony pointed out with a wry tone. "Which is why we kind of need to get them out of there, fast."

Magneto gave him a brief glance before focusing on Thor in a manner that Tony found oddly irritating and quite possibly insulting. What was he, chopped liver in a tin can? "You. Thunder god. Can you bring down lightning upon them?" And how did he know what Thor was and could do? Oh, right. The fight where he had snatched Billy. That'd do it, even if he hadn't caught any previous broadcasts. Never mind spending several days in Billy's company.

Thor nodded with a contemplative expression. "Aye. But that might not bring them down at once, certainly not when there are so many. It would be hard for the surge to get through the ice to their core; at worst, I would only annoy them."

"Leave that to me," Magneto said. "All you need to do is make sure everything on that field is struck at once."

Tony's eyes widened in shock. "Are you insane? Billy and the girl are still down there!"

Magneto turned cool eyes toward him. "I am well aware of that, Stark. That is precisely why we must hurry, is it not?"

"But they're going to get fried right with the giants!" That couldn't happen. It couldn't. He'd promised Pepper to bring everyone home in one piece, and he was pretty sure premature cremation fell under the no-no clause.

"And what cause would I have to hurt them to save them?"

"Like I know what goes on in the mind of a megalomaniac," Tony snorted. He had an ego, but even he wasn't as bad as the world-conquering types. If he'd had any aspirations to that direction, he was sure he would have already succeeded. "Maybe you just figure the only way to get rid of them is to get rid of Billy since his magic is calling to them!"

"It is not his magic, though, is it?" Magneto raised an eyebrow at him. "I know what I am doing, Stark. Unless you have another plan, stand back."

"Friend Tony?" Thor looked at him dubiously. "Should I do as he asks?"

"Hell no," Tony said, or meant to say, but had gotten no further than opening his mouth as someone else cut in.

"Do it," Tommy said, of all people, a determined look on his face. "It'll work. Do it!"

It was some conspiracy of older brothers, Tony decided, as Thor merely nodded, a focused look entering his face as he shifted his hold on his hammer. "At your mark, then, man of metal."

Tony really, really hoped this was a case of Tommy's thoughts running light years ahead of anyone else's. He wouldn't let his brother get fried to a crisp that easily, after all. Would he?

"Very well, then." Magneto was hovering, now, and did nobody else have enough respect for the laws of physics to at least do some work before breaking them? "Get ready."

He lifted his hands, a look of concentration on his face. At his side Tony vaguely saw Steve lifting his shield as though prepared to block any threat that might come forward. Tony himself was torn between trust in Tommy's judgment and merely standing in horror as the international terrorist brought his hands to his sides in a sharp motion.

The spears in the ice giants' hands wrenched themselves away, barely stopping to spin around in the air before turning on their owners, soaring through the air to sink themselves through ice and flesh. The roars of pain and dismay almost drowned Magneto's loud call of, "Now!"

Almost, but not quite. Thor certainly heard him well enough, lifting his hammer with some grand proclamation before bringing it down, calling down lightning and thunder and all other kinds of flashy things upon the menacing crowd. The giants howled, but had no time to do much more; some of them exploded for lack of a better word, flying apart at the force of the thunder strike, while others merely fell over, gasping and convulsing in their dying throes. And in the middle of it all, at the point of the strongest strike, were Billy and the poor little girl, the light there too bright for Tony to even see them.

He wasn't sure he wanted to see what was there. Even with the improvised lightning rods, there was no way that amount of electricity hadn't gotten to them.

"You!" And that would be Quicksilver, then, rushing forward. Tony was almost surprised it had taken him this long. He'd probably just been too shocked to realize what was actually happening. "I'll blow your fucking face off, you maniac!"

"Pietro," Magneto said, and could nothing faze this guy at all? "Calm yourself."

"Like hell I will!" And now he was standing there, all blazing eyes and white hair and exploding fury, and yeah, definitely Tommy's uncle. "First you kidnap him to lure Wanda and me out, and as soon as he's of no use to you, you sacrifice him for your own safety?"

"I did not —" was all Magneto got out before a fist was heading his way, too fast to see with naked eye. The only reason Tony knew that was what happened was because said fist was caught in an even faster hand, Tommy's fingers curled tight around his older counterpart's wrist.

"For once, slow down, Uncle-ish," he said, the eyes behind his goggles grave and steady. "Somehow, he knows what he's doing. They're fine. Billy and Ororo both are fine."

"They can't be," Pietro gasped. "Her wind wouldn't shield them, and Billy's unconscious. He couldn't have protected them from that."

"He didn't need to, though." Magneto glanced out to the field, at the small clearing in the middle of ice giant remains. "Neither of them needed any shield from that."

Tony looked over, finally overcoming his fear of what he might find. To his shock, his eyes did not meet two fried corpses; instead, there was Ororo, fiercely hugging Billy, who had apparently come back to his senses enough to at least try to hug her back. "How…"

"His more impressive powers may come from his mother, but at first, he took after me in a manner," Magneto said with a low tone. "And she is not solely known as a weather witch for wind and rain."

"They both have electricity powers," Kate explained, finally making her way over. "A mutant won't be hurt by their own powers, so it was as good a bet as any. How Magneto knew it, though, I've no idea."

"Billy told me some about himself," Magneto replied. "Not enough for me to be sure, but enough to draw conclusions from. And the child once remarked that he smelled like thunder and she found that safe."

"That's all?" Now Tommy's head whipped towards him. "I thought you knew! You risked their lives on a guess?!"

"Not at all." Nothing on the old man's face would have hinted that he still had a quivering fist held just inches from his face. "While I may not have known for sure, you obviously know your brother, and since both he and the archer knew the child, it was a safe bet you would. I trusted that if you were anything like Pietro, you would never let me go through with the plan if it might hurt them."

"You trusted him to be like me?" Quicksilver's tone was simultaneously disbelieving and almost… scared. That didn't make sense. Why would he have been scared? "You risked both their lives on the boy being like me?"

"And why not? He chose to be a hero as well." Finally, Magneto stepped back. "Now, if you will excuse me, I do have other places to be. I'm sure Billy will be able to reach me should he wish to."

"And you think you'll just walk away just like that?" Tony asked. "That we'll let you go after all this?"

"Should I not think that?" He got an almost amused look from the old man, which was quite unsettling to say the least. "I would hope you are a better father than I am, Stark. As such, surely you would be more concerned with ascertaining your son's well-being than chasing after me?"

Tony was going to say that he at least could trust others to look after his kid for five seconds while he secured the international terrorist. However, in the time he glanced back at Billy and Ororo, Magneto had apparently taken the opportunity to vanish. Not that it would have done much good anyway, for all his ire; Steve's shield and all of Tony's armor could have been scrap for all he cared, and somehow Tony doubted Kate would have been entirely ready to sink an arrow into the alternative version of her future grandfather-in-law or whatever. Tommy or Pietro could have reached him, he supposed, but Tommy was already down with his brother, with Quicksilver presumably off to make sure his sister was all right after facing such a shocking spectacle. Damn. He hated it when the villains thought they had outsmarted him.

First, though, there were priorities. Priorities like indeed being a good father, or at least good enough of one to make sure his son was fine after getting kidnapped by a madman.

His own father had never thought that particular task warranted his presence.

No stupid father thoughts, now. He was better than that, and he was going to prove it once again by going to Billy and making sure he was fine and taking him home personally for Pepper to fuss over.

Whether he was ever going to let the kid out of his sight again would be a matter of fierce negotiation.

*

When Billy woke up, he found himself staring right up at a very worried Ororo.

"Ororo?" He blinked, trying to will away the headache that was starting to blossom right behind his eyes. "What happened?"

"You screamed and fell." She worried her lower lip, moving away just enough to allow for him to sit up, though refusing to budge any further. "I tried to keep the monsters away, but they were too big and strong."

"Oh, I'm sure you did your best. There were just too many of them." He leaned back on one hand, reaching the other to smooth down her hair. It was standing on end with static electricity, forming a white halo around her head, but his hand coaxed it back to its usual fluffy volume. "What happened?" Because while he could certainly recall vague images of the ice giants surrounding him, all he could see now was splintered corpses all around them.

"There was big lightning." Ororo frowned. "It was bigger than when there's a storm, and it hit the sticks in the monsters."

"Sticks?" Spears, it had to be the spears. "And lightning?"

"Yes, but it wasn't me. I promise it wasn't!" She looked at him with wide, earnest eyes to make this absolutely clear.

"I believe you, Ororo." Especially since he could see a figure with a flowing red cape standing some ways away. "Thank you for doing your best to keep me safe. I'm sure we couldn't have done it without you."

Ororo nodded wordlessly, and then suddenly hugged him tight. "I was so scared," she murmured. "I thought they'd get us…"

"But they didn't. You helped keep them away for so long that our friends made them go away."

"Billy!" And here was Tommy, coming to a halt next to them, eyes wide and hair a mess from the wind. "You idiot, don't you dare do that again!"

"I'm quite hoping not to be any kind of a magical beacon again anytime soon, yeah." Billy gave a faint chuckle. "Ororo, this is Tommy. He's my brother."

"Yo." Tommy relaxed just minutely, grinning at her. "I don't care what Billy says about me, don't trust a word of it. He's a terrible liar, my baby brother is."

Ororo blinked. "But Billy said his brother is nice." Oh, right, he had said that.

"See, that's exactly why you shouldn't trust him." Tommy reached a hand to Billy to help him up. "I'm not nice. I'm a terrible person all around. The evil twin, you know?"

Ororo looked at him suspiciously, then snorted. "You're silly."

"Yeah, that too. I'm very, very silly. And I get especially silly when I don't have Billy around, so I've been extra silly for a while now."

"Well, I'm going to get home now," Billy assured him. "So you can stop being silly."

"Oh, I don't know about that. It's not that easy to just stop being silly, you've got to give me a few days to get back to normal. It's all your fault, anyway, I'm not the one who went and got kidnapped."

"It wasn't technically speaking a kidnapping. Well, not entirely, anyway. It's a bit murky." He glanced around at the crumbling ice giants. "This is going to be a lot to clean up."

"Yeah, that's why we alerted SHIELD to the scene." Tommy snorted. "The only thing you're doing is getting yourself checked and then we'll go home."

"You know, for once, I'm not even going to protest." Before he could say anything else, though, his attention was caught by the sound of something heavy landing behind him. Turning around, he saw Teddy standing in front of him. "Teddy!"

"Billy." And then he was being drawn into a hug, the best kind of hug, and though it hurt a bit with his poor wounded side, he didn't even care. Teddy was here, and that was all he needed right now. Teddy was nice and warm and big, and though there were rough scales against his arms, that was fine because it was just Teddy. Teddy scales were awesome.

Of course, just then he heard a growl from his side.

"You go away!" Ororo was trying to tug Teddy away by his arm. Of course, even her best efforts did not budge him even a bit, Teddy stuck somewhere between bewildered and amused at her attempts. "Get away from Billy, you ugly monster!"

"Oh, Ororo, there's no need to be worried." Billy managed a small smile at her. "See, this is Teddy, not a monster. Teddy's my fiancé. He would never do anything to hurt me."

Ororo's face scrunched up in confusion. "What's a fiancé?"

"It means we're going to get married one day." Teddy's arms were strong and firm around him, holding him close. "And I would never hurt him, no matter what."

"That's good." Ororo still didn't let go of Teddy's arm. "If you hurt him, I'll — I'll zap you!"

"Ororo, it's not nice to zap people." And yet Billy couldn't help but smile, just a bit. "And besides, it wouldn't work on Teddy."

"Oh?" She frowned. "Is that because he's a monster?"

"I told you, he's not a monster. In fact," Billy dropped his voice to a conspiratorial whisper, "he's an alien prince, but you can't tell anyone."

"Really?" Ororo's eyes flew wide. "He's an actual prince?"

"Yes, he is. His mother was a princess, so that makes him a prince. But there's bad guys out there looking for the prince, so we can't let them know it's him, all right?"

"Right." She gave him an utterly solemn nod, then frowned again. "Are you sure he's not a monster?"

Billy chuckled, and Teddy joined him. "I promise I'm not," Teddy said, slowly morphing back into his human-like form, though his arms stayed tight and strong against Billy. "See? Not a monster. I just get bigger when I need to fight."

"Ohhhh." Ororo's eyes widened again. "You're human!"

"Close enough, at least." Billy grinned. "See, he turns so big and strong so he can protect me and everyone else. That's because he's a hero."

"That's good." Ororo gave him a firm nod. "People should be heroes."

"That's definitely true." Billy smiled at her, then looked over to where others were getting closer. "I think we should now let people check us over so they can know we're not hurt."

"Right." And seriously, a kid that young should not have been giving him the same look he got from Kate when he was caught trying to hide some totally minor scrape. "You need to get better."

"See, that? I totally agree with. You're absolutely right, kid, on every last word." Tommy grinned. "Fortunately Teddy's dad is right about here, and he's a doctor, so he'll be able to check both of you." And, yeah, not a medical doctor, but the sad thing was Bruce still was pretty good at keeping all their inside things inside.

"Do I need to?" Ororo frowned.

"Well, I would feel better if you let Bruce make sure you're all right." Billy crouched down in front of her, careful with his wound, and took her hand with a smile. "That way I don't have to be nervous about it, either."

"Right." Another firm nod and that almost scolding look. "And then you get better."

"And then I'll get better, I promise." And it was a promise he actually felt good about making, because he was home, and he was with Teddy, and everything was going to be just fine.

Everything was going to be fine.

*

"So." Having just finished getting out of his suit, Tony glanced at his little motley crew as they started heading toward the plane. "Everyone here?"

"Everyone but Erik, I think." Kate was standing next to Tommy, who had an arm securely around her waist. Not that Tony blamed him for possibly feeling just a tad protective over her after everything that had happened. "But then, I don't think that exactly surprises anyone."

"Right." Tony frowned. "Well, the SHIELD goons can handle themselves, and I think we can fit everyone else into the jet. It might be a bit of a tight fit, but we'll make do."

"Yeah, actually, I think we'll skip the ride." Tommy gave him a small grin that tried to look more energetic than it was, but at least he seemed genuinely happy, if a bit harried. "I thought I'd carry Kate over so we can get things ready before you guys get there."

"Ready?" And here was Steve, thank goodness for warm, solid Steve right next to Tony. "What do you mean?"

"Well, you know. Everyone's going to be starving by the time you get there, so we'll get some food," Kate clarified. "And while I'm sure you'll call Pepper soon," or else, her voice made clear, "I think those staying behind might like some more detailed information on what exactly happened."

"Just don't start by telling them that Billy almost ended up fried." Tony made a face. He would have to think very carefully about how to share that particular piece of information. "But sure, if you want. Seems like a great idea to me. I know I wouldn't complain about having food waiting for us."

"We'll make sure to have plenty of it waiting for everyone." Kate glanced over to where Teddy was helping Billy toward the plane. The boy looked exhausted, but he was grinning happily enough. "I think Billy might actually get close to matching Tommy's appetite for once."

Tony snorted. "I wouldn't be too surprised. He's been quite the busy bee lately."

"Yeah, he's certainly done a lot for someone who should probably be mostly in bedrest." Tommy smirked, then picked Kate up into his arms without much warning, and sped off.

Tony looked after them with a sigh and a shake of his head. "Sometimes I'm not even sure if I should be exasperated at that or just jealous that my suit can't match the speed."

"Well, for what it's worth, I quite like your suit as it is." Steve nudged him in the side. "Shouldn't we get aboard as well?"

"Probably, yeah. No use wasting time around here." And here were Wanda and Pietro, standing nearby and watching everyone, seeming to hesitate about what they should do. "Oi, you two, get on the plane. There's enough seats for everyone."

"And why should we do that?" Pietro frowned, and, yes, that was such a Tommy look right there. Though he supposed it was more likely that Tommy's expression took after Pietro rather than the other way around. Details.

"Because it's been a long day for everyone, and while I'm sure you could pick up and carry your sister dearest right back home, you're not as young as you probably were at some point. Besides, I'm pretty sure both of you are at least somewhat curious to learn more about the kids, and if you just leave now that's going to be somewhat more difficult."

"We wouldn't want to impose on you." And yet the look Wanda gave toward the plane was almost longing. See? He was totally not socially challenged, he was just an asshole.

"No imposing to be done. As I said, there's room on the plane, the kids are going to make sure there's more than enough food once we get there, and we've got space for everyone to stay over if need be."

"Please," Steve said, with a tone much closer to a request than Tony could muster up. "It would be a big help. Ororo seems quite intent on making sure Billy is all right, but he needs his rest, and with Tommy and Kate having gone on ahead you're the only people she knows here."

"So you just need a babysitter." Pietro raised his eyebrows. "What makes you think we'd be interested?"

"Pietro." Wanda sighed, touching his arm. She didn't say anything else, but then it seemed nothing more was needed. He rolled his eyes, made a dismissive sound, then turned toward the plane.

"I expect to be well fed at the end of the day," Pietro announced. "If it weren't for your brat, we would be happily at home without having been mixed up in this whole mess."

"If it wasn't for my so-called brat, you'd still think your daddy dearest tried to kill you. If you think that'd make you much happier, well, I suppose I can't really help you there. To each their own and all that."

Pietro didn't give an answer, disappearing into the plane instead. Wanda gave them an apologetic smile.

"He'll come around," she said softly. "He just doesn't deal too well with big changes."

"Oh, we don't know anyone like that." Tony knew even without looking that Steve was giving him that half teasing, half loving smile that both annoyed and endeared him to no end. "On a more serious note, though, I think the kids at least would like to stay in touch. You're not exactly their mother, but then the circumstances of the other Wanda were rather messy as well."

"Yes, I heard so." Wanda sighed. "It's... well. It seems awfully complicated, the whole thing. Complicated and quite sad."

"Yeah, well, they're making the most of it. So if you could keep your brother dearest from driving them away entirely, I would be rather obliged. Or, you know, if you could keep from hiding away from the world for a couple of decades again."

"Oh, I think I'm rather done with that." The smile she gave them now was still careful, but there was a hint of happiness as well. "I've spent quite a while mourning a lost dream. I think it just might be about time to come up with a new one."

"Well, good luck with that." Tony waited as she followed her brother in, then looked at Steve. "Shall we?"

"Always." Steve stayed close to his side as they both walked into the plane. They were the last to get there, everyone else already settling down. Despite his words, Pietro had managed to coax Ororo into a seat close to his, with Wanda just seating herself on her other side. Billy was leaning against Teddy's shoulder, his dear boyfriend appearing to have no intention of letting go of him anytime soon. Tony led Steve toward a couple of free seats near Bruce, who nodded at them in greeting.

"So." Tony nodded his head toward Billy. "What exactly is the matter with him?"

Bruce followed his gaze. "Well, there's obviously the wound on his side, which is frankly pretty bad, but it seems it's been treated as well as possible. Besides that, it seems he's got a pretty bad concussion. From what he told me he got his head hit during the battle, which probably would have caused that."

"Oh." Tony frowned. "That doesn't sound good." Steve by his side took his hand and squeezed it lightly.

"We'll need to get him to a hospital when we get back, that's for sure." Bruce sighed a bit. "I'm hoping it's nothing bad, but we'd better have him examined just in case. With any luck it's just that and the symptoms will go away with enough rest and time, but it's always better to be safe than sorry."

"True enough." Tony looked over to where the little girl was casting worried looks Billy's way, only to be distracted from it by some shiny magic sparks of Wanda's. Yay for children and defective attention spans. "And how is she?" Because there was no way Bruce wouldn't have at least looked her over.

"Unscathed, far as I can tell. I don't think she got hurt at all, aside from being somewhat scraped up."

"Well, thank God for small miracles, at least." Of course, that didn't exactly solve the problem of what to do with her now, but they'd get there. Everything would be solved in time, or he would have some very stern words with reality.

"Perhaps you should call Pepper now," Steve said with a low voice as the door to the plane closed, Clint calling out from the cockpit that he was about to start the engines. "She will want to hear the news."

"Right." Tony dug out his cell phone. Call Pepper. That was an excellent idea, thanks. He needed to hear her voice anyway.

Pepper answered almost immediately, which, yeah, awesome, even though it was probably simply because she was so worried. Tony did his best not to sound too tired, though his hand squeezed Steve's tight to ground himself.

"Ah, my beautiful bell pepper," he cooed. "It's been far too long since I heard your voice."

"Cut the chatter, Tony." Ah, here was his beloved non-nonsense woman. He loved her so. "How is everyone?"

"Most of us are pretty much unscathed," Tony replied, glancing around the plane to confirm this. Thor was sitting on the floor because apparently puny human concepts such as seat belts did not concern him even during take-off, getting into a rather enthusiastic conversation with Natasha about knives, and everyone else was securely in their seats as the plane got off the ground. "Billy's exhausted, of course, and Bruce thinks he's got a concussion, so we'll have that checked out once we get him to the city."

"And is that the truth?"

"Do you think I'd lie to you about this? Believe me, Steve wouldn't let me, and he's sitting here right beside me." He gave the phone over to Steve before Pepper could respond. "Tell her, Steve. She trusts you more than me, which is just unfair, really, I totally saw her first."

"Tony's telling the truth, darling," Steve said, and, yeah, even after all this time, it still made Tony's heart jump a little to hear Steve talk like that to Pepper. "Aside from Billy's injuries, we're all fine, and he's going to the hospital before coming home. A bit tired in some cases, but nothing that a good night's sleep won't cure."

Pepper said something, as Steve nodded and made his best "yes I'm listening to you" noises, the kind he always made when Tony was going on about some project of his, and Tony had yet to find any indication that they weren't perfectly sincere because Steve was just like that. Then the phone was given back to him, and he automatically put it to his ear.

"So I told Steve to make sure nobody's hiding any injuries because I know you're a team of idiots," Pepper said, but her tone was one of affection so obviously they were her idiots. "When will you be here?"

"Well, we're going to take another while, but Kate and Tommy should be there pretty soon," Tony replied. "Honestly, if they're not there by now, they've stopped for a make-out session. They're supposed to make sure you're all up to speed and there's food for everyone by the time we get home."

"I'll be prepared for that, then." Pepper chuckled, and yes, it had been so very long since he had heard her sound like that. Well, at least since before Billy disappeared, which hadn't been quite as long as it felt but still an eternity. "Anything I should do? Besides making sure you have enough cars waiting when you land, of course." Ah, there was his beautiful, efficient Pepper.

"Actually," Tony glanced over to where Ororo was gasping at Wanda's magic sparkles, "I think there might be something." Because wasn't there always something else? "Make sure we have lawyers on call. It seems that stray Kate picked up is still around."

"Of course." And yup, that was definitely her affectionate sigh. "You bringing back extra people is much better than being short a few."

"See, that's exactly what I was thinking." Steve's hand found his again, and Tony entwined his fingers with his. "We'll all be home soon." And then, because obviously he had to, he added, "We love you, Pep."

"I know. I love you both, too."

The call was over, then, but that was all right. They would be back in New York soon enough, and then he could speak with Pepper in person. And then eat and shower and go to bed, hopefully with company.

For now, it was quite enough to have Steve by his side and everyone safe.

Damn, he was getting soft.

*

Kate had to admit she wasn't too surprised when Tommy came to a stop some ways away from the Tower, setting her down at a somewhat isolated spot in a park before leaning his head against a nearby tree. Kate looked at him, trying to decide whether she should have said something or not. Deciding against it, she waited until he gave some indication of being ready for a chat.

"He's alive." Tommy's voice was quiet, but she heard it well enough. "He's alive and in one piece and he'll be home soon once they've made sure he's all right in the head."

"Yeah, I know." She stepped closer to set a hand on his shoulder, feeling the minute vibrations running through his body. Still not quite calm, then. "He'll be fine, Tommy. We'll all be fine, I promise."

"I'll try and believe that one of these days." Tommy stayed still for another moment, then pushed himself away from the tree with a sigh. "I'm being ridiculous."

"How so?" She wasn't about to argue, not until he clarified. Sometimes he did act ridiculous, and they both knew that. False reassurances would not help.

"I can't help but think that I shouldn't have let him out of my sight. That I should have piled into the plane and flown home with them, no matter how slow that would be, and then go to the hospital with him and make sure he makes it home, because then he'd somehow be safe and sound and I wouldn't have to worry anymore."

"Teddy is with him, as is everyone else. He will be fine."

"Yeah, I know. That's why I'm being ridiculous." Tommy sighed. "That, and considering that you were zapped away right out of our home, just getting him there wouldn't actually guarantee safety."

"Well, if you think about it, neither of us was ever in any actual danger." Aside from that first encounter with Phil and a knife, but that was not something she should bring up right now. "Sure, it was terrible for everyone who didn't know what was going on, but the only actual danger came from the ice giants, and fighting those is our job. Erik never had any intention of hurting Billy, and actually made sure he got medical attention for the visible wounds, and while I had a somewhat rocky start with Phil we then found Clint and after that I had nothing to worry about."

"I know that now, but I didn't when we still had no idea where or how either of you had disappeared to. And when I've spent days doing pretty much nothing but wondering where the idiot is and whether he'll be coming home in one piece, it's somewhat hard to get over that now."

"Oh, Tommy." She squeezed his shoulder. "It's fine to be worried. Really, it is. He's your baby brother, I'm your girlfriend." No, she would not allow him to deny it now, not that she actually expected him to try. "It's just natural to worry about us when you don't know where we are, and it's also natural it'll take a while for you to get over it. There's nothing ridiculous about that."

"Except I'm not supposed to worry." Tommy looked at her with a frown. "I'm not supposed to get all sappy and concerned about something that's not actually an issue. Hell, I shouldn't admit it'd even affect me if either of you did get hurt."

"You know, you're lucky I currently feel some sympathy for you, because I want to slap you pretty badly right now." Kate rolled her eyes. "You've spent so much time claiming to be all unemotional, you're almost starting to believe it. Not caring when someone close to you gets hurt doesn't make you strong or tough or untouchable, it just makes you a psychopath."

"Try telling that to my parents."

"They were not your parents." Kate was almost surprised at the fierce tone in her own voice. "I don't care who gave birth to you, they did not act like parents and never had the right to call themselves that. Wanda was more of your mother than that other woman ever was; at least she wanted the best for you instead of selling you off as a human guinea pig."

"Except Wanda didn't spend the first fifteen or so years of my life telling me how I should be grateful to her for the fact I was still breathing."

"Exactly." Kate tugged at him a bit, and as she found no resistance, drew him into her arms. "It's okay not to care about someone who hurt you," she murmured. "Just because they were supposedly your biological parents doesn't give them the right to demand love or respect from you while they treat you like shit. If that was all that mattered, then neither you nor Billy should give a damn if something happened to Tony, since he never actually had a part in your birth or raising you for most of your lives. Except Tony cares about you, so obviously you want to return that." And that, right there, was still something of a miracle. Even after all this time it still sometimes surprised her to realize that Tony Stark was actually occasionally capable of thinking about someone else's best interests instead of what he perceived to be the greater good.

"Well, he cares about Billy, anyway." And now, what was that foolishness?

"Don't be ridiculous." Kate snorted. "You know he likes you just as well if not better. And no, I won't hear any protests about that, because if you try I will march you over to Tony once they get home and demand him to tell you the truth, and that will be just embarrassing for you both. You're not just some extra, you're perfectly deserving of someone caring about you for yourself, and if you dare try to deny that I will have to give you a very detailed description of why exactly I care about you and you know it will be mortifying."

"Well, sorry if I don't have much experience with that kind of shit."

"This is your opportunity, then." She hugged him closer for a moment, then stepped back to set her hands on his shoulders as she looked him in the eye. "Come on. Let's go to the Tower and get food and everything ready for when the others get home. I'm sure Pepper is rather anxious to hear some actual news, and we shouldn't upset my almost-in-law, now should we?"

Tommy gave a small nod, actually managing something reminiscent of his usual smirk. "I suppose it would be stupid of me to try to argue with you about this, huh?"

"It would be most unwise, my speedy beloved." She leaned in to butt her forehead against his. "Come on, Long Legs. I'm not walking all the way to the Tower, and I don't know about you, but all this excitement has left me starving."

"Right." Tommy nodded. "Should get home and get ourselves and everyone else fed."

"And once you've personally seen Billy get home all sound and safe," she added, "you could take your time making sure I'm still in one piece. You know, again." Because he'd certainly done a thorough enough inspection while trying to distract himself from his fears.

The only response she got was a quick kiss before Tommy scooped her up into his arms and their surroundings became a mere blur, but she supposed that was good enough, anyway.

*

Ororo couldn't remember ever seeing a building this big before.

There had been large buildings in Cairo, too, but nothing quite as tall and proud and shiny as this, certainly nothing that stood out from the surrounding buildings so much. She stared at the tall building for a while as they drove closer, then couldn't help but gasp as she realized they were turning towards it.

"Is that where we're going?" She turned towards Clint, who seemed like the safest option at the moment. Neither Kate nor Billy were there, and though Wanda was being nice, she wasn't sure she dared ask her something that stupid.

"Yup." Clint grinned. "That's the Avengers Tower, and we all live there. Billy and Kate, too, if you were wondering. Kate should already be here with Tommy."

"Is Billy here, too?" All she knew was that he had gone somewhere else when they got back from the plane, with Teddy there with him. She had wanted to go with them, to make sure nobody hurt Billy, but Wanda had picked her up and carried her to the big car with everyone else.

"Not yet," Wanda said, brushing a hand over Ororo's hair. It was a bit strange, but it felt nice. "They have to take him to hospital first. They think he has a concussion, so they need to make sure he's not badly hurt."

"He has a bad wound." Duh. Even she knew that much, and she was just a kid.

"It's not the wound we're worried about. Yeah, that was pretty bad, but Bruce checked it and it's actually pretty clean and well cared for," Clint explained. "However, it seems he hit his head pretty badly at some point, so they need to make sure he doesn't have a wound inside his head, too."

"Oh." Ororo frowned. "That doesn't sound good."

"It'll be fine." Wanda drew her closer into a small hug, and okay, that felt nice, too. "If there is something, he'll just stay at the hospital, but if everything's fine, he'll be home soon."

"And can I stay until he comes?" Probably not, of course, this looked like a pretty big and clean house and she was not big or clean, but she figured it wouldn't hurt to ask.

"I'm sure Tony won't mind if you want to. He already said there's guest rooms aplenty, so it shouldn't be a problem if you want to stay." Clint looked first at Ororo, then past her to Wanda.

"We wouldn't want to intrude." Wanda's tone was really soft for some reason.

"Tony wouldn't have offered in the first place if he didn't mean it." It was the first time in a while Phil said anything, so it kind of startled Ororo. There were five of them in this car, which was pretty big but not big enough for everyone. Clint and Phil were sitting with each other, and Ororo was between Wanda and Pietro opposite to them. It was good, having people she already kind of knew, but she still felt a little strange about being in this car. It was so big and the seats were so soft, and she was kind of worried her feet were too dirty for it.

"That's right." Clint grinned as the car drove inside and finally came to a stop. "Now, come on. I'm sure we're all starving, so the kids had better have some food ready for us."

The driver came up and opened the door. Wanda helped Ororo get out, and Pietro was right behind them, sticking close to Wanda and looking around. Ororo was doing the same. The garage they had driven into was pretty big, and had a lot of shiny cars. There were other cars parking as well, the rest piling out of them. Tony was on the phone, talking very fast about something, while everyone else was stretching themselves. Ororo felt a bit restless. It had been a long drive, and before that the air plane had been pretty full, too.

"Come on." Clint nodded toward one end of the parking hall, and Wanda took Ororo's hand, tugging her in that direction. "Let's get you something to eat, okay? Wouldn't want you to get even smaller than you are."

Ororo couldn't help but giggle. "I can't get smaller," she protested. "People only grow bigger."

"Yeah, well, that's still no reason to let you waste away." Clint grinned. "Come on, follow me. We want to get on the first elevator, not even Tony's big one can fit everyone at once."

Ororo almost wanted to run on ahead, but Wanda held onto her hand. It was fine, Ororo decided, since she was pretty tired anyway. She was hungry, too, that was true, so it was good they got to the elevator first. She blinked as the doors slid open without anyone having to press anything, but let herself be ushered into the opening space. Clint, Phil, Wanda and Pietro got in as well, and the doors slid shut.

"Welcome home, Agent Barton," said a voice from somewhere Ororo couldn't see with a strange accent. "I see the guests have also arrived."

"Well, some of them are guests." Clint grinned happily. It was a good look, Ororo decided. He could sometimes look almost scary when he wasn't happy, but now he wasn't scary at all. "Take us up, will you? There's plenty of people who still need to be shipped up, so there's no time to waste."

"Duly noted, Agent." The elevator started to move, slowly at first, but then faster. Ororo felt really heavy as it moved up. There were numbers above the door, she noted, but they were changing too fast for her to keep track of them. They had to be going pretty high up in the building.

After what seemed like a long while for something so fast, the elevator finally slowed down. "I took the liberty of choosing the common floor as the destination," said the same voice from nowhere. "There is food and refreshments laid out already."

"Thank you, JARVIS." So JARVIS was the name of the voice.

"Thank you, JARVIS!" Ororo said as well. She didn't want the elevator to get mad at her. That would have been bad.

"Quite my pleasure." The doors slid open, revealing what had to be the biggest living room Ororo had ever seen. There were several couches and armchairs, and more than one TV, and on the many tables there were snacks and cans of soda and boxes of pizza. One of the couches was already in use, and seeing the people there made Ororo tug herself away from Wanda's grasp.

"Kate!" She rushed forward, running to the couch. Kate was there, next to Billy's brother who looked just like Billy except his hair, and two other women as well. "Tony said we could come here!"

"So I see." Kate smiled, and didn't look so tired anymore. That was good. "Are you hungry? Help yourself, there's plenty more of everything."

"Really?" Ororo blinked. "I can just eat whatever I want?"

"Sure, go ahead." The not-Billy waved a hand. Tommy? Ororo was pretty sure his name was Tommy, Billy had said so when he was being silly. "Kids get cranky when they're hungry, even I know that. Go nuts, it's better to do the picking before everyone else gets here and takes all the good stuff."

It still sounded rather weird, she was just a kid after all and kids rarely got to pick what they ate, but nobody seemed to mind so she ran off to the tables. Wanda and Pietro seemed a bit lost for a moment, but Tommy waved for them to sit down.

"Come on, don't look like kicked little puppies. Grab a seat, get something to eat, relax." He grinned. "I'm the copy of a reincarnation of the kid of another world's Wanda, so since this is my home among others, I figure it should be good enough for you guys."

"Well, aren't you just the picture of welcoming cheer." Pietro didn't sound happy, but he did run over to the table to get things to eat, so he couldn't be angry, either. "Your brother at least tried to make it sound somewhat believable."

"Yeah, that's Billy for you. Always trying to please everyone." Tommy chuckled. "Even when weird old criminals kidnap him away."

"We had nothing to do with that." Pietro disappeared for a moment, then came back just as soon, helping her fill her plate. "I'd have been quite happy never to see the old man again."

"Yeah, I know. All his fault, yada yada. You'd just love to keep all that emotional shit out of the way."

"Tommy, behave." Kate sighed. As Ororo took her finished plate from Pietro and turned around to find somewhere to sit, she saw Kate elbowing Tommy, who made a hurting sound. "And mind your language."

"Yes, because the kid's obviously going to get traumatized." Tommy waved at Ororo with the hand that wasn't holding a slice of pizza. "So say, is it true Kate found you in the middle of the street?"

"I caught her picking my pocket," Clint cut in before Ororo could respond. "And then Kate saw her and insisted we should take her with us, and after that she kind of stuck around."

"They said I could come," Ororo pointed out in her defense. "I even asked Billy to go with him."

"Yeah, I heard about that too." Tommy took on a strange little smile. It was kind of like Pietro's voice earlier, it just didn't look very happy. "Thanks for keeping an eye on him, squirt. He doesn't always know what's best for him."

"That is evident." Pietro had taken a seat on the arm of the couch Wanda was sitting on, taking a big bite out of a sandwich and chewing it really quick before he continued talking. "If nothing else, that might actually convince me he's related to some kind of Wanda."

"Well, don't expect that from me. Not sure about this world, but back where we come from, white-haired Maximoffs don't do well in the emotional department." Tommy paused. "Well. Lehnsherrs. Eisenhardts. Whatever floats your boat."

"That would seem rather accurate for this world as well." Wanda's smile was small, too, but it was a bit happier than Pietro's. "Ororo? Don't you have a place to sit?"

"I'm fine." There was a cushion on the floor, and she saw similar ones on other couches, so it had probably been dropped there. It was a good place to sit, she decided, since she could set her plate on the floor and not have to hold it in her lap. This, however, placed her near the two women she did not know. "Who are you?"

"Ah, right. Do excuse me, I was just wondering if we should wait until everyone is here for introductions." One of the women smiled. She had red hair and a very pretty dress, but she looked pretty tired. "I'm Pepper Potts. I'm Steve and Tony's girlfriend, so that kind of makes me Tommy and Billy's stepmother."

"I'm Jane Foster." The other woman waved with her own slice of pizza. "Thor's girlfriend. You meet him yet? From what Kate and Tommy have told us, you might get along well."

"With which she wants to say that you have already been introduced to us in your absence." Pepper gave a small nod to Wanda and Pietro. "I know this is all turning out quite impolite, but since everyone is probably exhausted, perhaps we should just give good manners a break tonight and talk things out properly tomorrow when everyone is feeling better."

"That certainly works for me." Wanda nodded back.

"I think I met Thor," Ororo said, nodding thoughtfully. "He can make lightning, just like Billy and me. And he put me on his shoulders for a bit when we were going to the plane. He's really big."

"Really nice, too." Jane smiled. "I'm sure he just adores you."

Then the elevator opened up again and more people poured in, and there was a lot more talking. Ororo fell quiet, watching everyone while she ate, making a couple of sneaky trips back to the table when she ran out of things to eat. Finally she was so full, she couldn't fit another piece no matter how good the pizza was, and besides she was getting tired. However, she couldn't go to sleep yet. She wanted to see Billy coming home, too.

Someone picked her up just as she was rubbing her eyes, trying to will the tiredness away. Thor, she realized, with big strong arms holding her easily off the ground. "We just received joyful news, little lady," Thor said, and Ororo could feel the rumbling of his chest, he was holding her so close. "It appears young William and Theodore will be here shortly."

"Really?" Ororo immediately felt a bit more awake. "Is Billy all right?"

"He'll be just fine." Tony was there, all of a sudden, a lot shorter than Thor and looking really tired, but he was smiling as well. "They checked his head and he just needs rest. All the nasty things will go away in time if he just takes the time to rest properly and doesn't work himself too hard."

"That's good." Ororo nodded decisively. "He shouldn't be hurt at all."

"Indeed not. So, when they get here, we'll probably get him fed and then off to bed. And speaking of beds," Tony turned towards where most of the people were sitting, all over the couches and floor and a few chairs that had been dragged along, "JARVIS informs me we have plenty of guest rooms available at the moment, so just in case you were wondering if my earlier invitation meant sleeping on the couch, fear not. There's more than enough beds for everyone, so nobody needs to crash here."

"You wish to stay to see young William return, do you not?"

"Yeah." Ororo nodded at Thor's question. "I'm not tired at all yet." Okay, maybe she was a little tired, but she needed to see Billy getting home all safe and healthy. Then she could sleep.

Despite her best efforts, it seemed she dozed off either way, because when someone was shaking her awake, she was in Wanda's lap, not Thor's arms. However, she couldn't really care about this, because as she got her eyes open, it was to see Billy sitting on another couch, looking pale and tired but smiling.

"Billy!" She scrambled off Wanda's lap and rushed over to him for a hug. "Are you all right? Are you hurt?"

"Hello, Ororo." He hugged her gently. "I'll be fine. I still need to heal a bit, but I promise I'll be fine."

She nodded in understanding. "Did they check your head?"

"Yes, and they said there's nothing badly hurt. The headaches and stuff will go away in time." He ruffled her hair. "You look a bit tired. Should you perhaps go to bed?" As she hesitated, he added, "I promise I'll still be here tomorrow. And maybe then we can see if you can make it rain at the pool."

"Really?" That would be great. She never dared to use her powers because people didn't like them much. "I get to do that?"

"Promise. Nothing to get too wet there, right?"

"Right." Teddy smiled at her, too. He was holding onto Billy, but it didn't look like he was holding too tight, so that was okay. "But first you do need to sleep."

"But I don't know where." She knew Tony had said something about beds, but she didn't want to just go wandering around. This was a big building, she'd get lost very quickly.

"I'll help." And here was Wanda again, taking her hand, and yeah, that felt good. "I was told JARVIS would show us the way."

"It would by my most sincere pleasure." The voice from the elevator was back, and talking to Wanda. Ororo decided it was probably the house speaking. Why couldn't a building this big and expensive speak?

She didn't remember much of the way down the stairs and along the corridor. At some point Pietro appeared and picked her up because she was getting too tired, and then they took her to a strange room that was really big. The bed was big, too, and very soft and warm, and the sheets smelled clean but strange. However, Ororo was too tired to worry about any of those things. It was the best bed she had ever slept in, and she was exhausted, and she just couldn't keep her eyes open any longer.

Someone was petting her hair as she fell asleep, soft and gentle.

She couldn't remember ever feeling something that nice before.

*

It was, Bruce noticed, unusually quiet in the Tower.

This was not due to the lack of people around, as usually was the case when things seemed too quiet. After everything was said and done Tony had promptly announced that everyone was staying in the Tower for the night at least, no arguments accepted. Bruce had half expected Pietro at least to disagree, but apparently Wanda had convinced him otherwise.

Now, however, the clock was nearing midnight, and the exhaustion of the last few days seemed to have caught up with everyone. Having seen people disappear off to their rooms one by one as the evening dragged on, Bruce had expected to find the common area more or less deserted as he made his way back for one last cup of tea. Instead, he caught sight of a familiar blond head in the living room.

Reminded of the first time he had spoken with Teddy alone, in rather similar circumstances, Bruce padded his way toward the couch. He cleared his throat, not wanting to startle his son. The last thing either of them needed was a shock.

"Ah, hi." Teddy turned to look at him with tired but ultimately happy eyes. "Still up, I see."

"You know me. Sleep doesn't always come when it should, so I thought I'd get some more tea." Bruce lifted his empty cup in indication.

"Right. You do make a habit of that." Teddy's voice was soft, more so than seemed reasonable simply because of the late hour. Walking around the couch, Bruce saw the clear reason for this. Billy was curled up on the couch next to him, tousled dark head resting in Teddy's lap.

"I take it the two of you have addressed your differences." Because the way they stuck together all evening hadn't been enough of an indicator.

"I suppose." Teddy chuckled faintly, running a gentle hand through Billy's hair. "You know, after we got past the part where I was basically just freaking out about having him back at last."

"Yes, we noticed that part." As he recalled, Tommy had been threatening to hit Teddy if he couldn't finally just believe that, yes, Billy had come back and didn't hate him. "But all's well that ends well, right?"

"Right." Teddy's smile was not entirely joyful, though it was hard to see actual sadness to it. Exhaustion, then. Bruce couldn't exactly blame him; for all that there had been very little in the way of physical effort for either of them lately, the stress and worry had taken their toll. "He fell asleep here and I didn't have the heart to wake him. He needs all the rest he can get."

"As long as you get some rest, too." He tried his best not to use his doctor voice, but it was hard to avoid. Honestly, sometimes it seemed nobody on the team knew the importance of proper recovery. "It won't help him if you exhaust yourself further."

"I know, I know. I was just about to nod off when you got here." Teddy gave him a reassuring smile. "I can sleep pretty easily in weird situations, and the healing means I don't get all stiff and achy after."

"Fair enough." Bruce smiled a bit in return. "You need me to get you a blanket or something?"

"Could you? I'm fine, but I think Billy could use one."

"Ever the gentleman, I see." Of course, he was still going to bring two. Just because Teddy could do without such comfort didn't mean he had to do so.

As Bruce returned some time later, having put the kettle on and then gone on a hunt for some extra blankets, Teddy's eyes were closed. However, as Bruce hesitated about approaching him, they opened half-way, accompanied by a nod.

"Thanks." Teddy sighed. "Sorry to be such trouble."

"It's no trouble at all." He carried the blankets over to the couch, helping Teddy spread one over Billy's curled-up form before handing him one. "Goodness knows I've woken enough times at my lab table covered with something I had no part in acquiring."

"At least you're not lecturing me about proper bedtimes." Teddy wrapped the blanket around his broad shoulders, leaning back against the back of the couch. "You know, Billy and I were talking."

"Yes, I know. You already told me." Apparently Teddy was even closer to sleep than he had realized.

"This was different, though. Not about our argument or his time with Magneto or how stupid I was about the whole thing." Teddy's lips twitched minutely even as his eyes were sliding shut again. "Nah, we were talking about something that's waited long enough."

"Oh? And what's that?" Bruce smiled as the already soft lights dimmed further, JARVIS ever attentive to the needs of the tower's inhabitants.

"Setting a wedding date." The tiny smile stretched into a momentary grin.

"Already?" Not that he believed the boys would rush into such matters without giving it proper thought.

"Well, it's not exactly already. I mean, we have been engaged for a couple of years already." Teddy shook his head. "Just… we figured it's about time. Of course, most people think our rings are just some silly teenager stuff, but we're serious. We always have been. I know Billy's the one I want to spend my whole life with."

"Well, when you settle on a day, let me know. And JARVIS, too, so he can make sure nobody has any pressing matters on that day. You know Tony would manage to forget it, and then beat himself up about it."

Teddy opened one eye, looking at him with a look of mild surprise. "That's it? No telling me we're rushing things and we're too young for anything like that?"

"Well, as you said, you have been thinking about this for a while. And I know you really love Billy, and he loves you." Bruce reached over to set a hand on Teddy's shoulder. "The two of you have been through worse than most couples ever will, and come out on the other side all the stronger for it. That, and you're both adults. I think it's about time to trust you to make your own decisions, regardless of what anyone else might think of them." He smiled softly. "If you tell me you're going to start planning the wedding, all I need to know is what you need me to do to help."

"Thank you." Teddy released a breath, his shoulders relaxing ever so slightly. "…The whole time he was away, it was like I was missing a part of myself. Except unlike a limb or whatever, I couldn't just grow that part back."

"He's back now, though." Bruce squeezed Teddy's shoulder. "He's back, and quite happy to stick by you by the looks of it."

"Lucky me." Teddy looked down at his boyfriend, his expression softening. "He's my everything, you know."

"Yes. I know." And Teddy was so very fortunate to have him, just like Billy was fortunate to have Teddy. "I also happen to know your everything will need you tomorrow, too, so it'd be for the best for you to get some sleep."

"Right." Teddy managed a small nod. "…Thanks."

"Nothing to thank me for." Bruce smiled. "Sleep well."

"I will." And, judging by the peaceful look on his face as he ran a hand over Billy's hair again, he truly would.

By the time Bruce returned from the kitchen with his fresh tea, peeking into the living room just to make sure, Teddy was fast asleep.


	10. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Billy has a chat with someone unexpected, and afterwards, he has something to tell Thor. In the end, he has to have some rather serious words with himself.

Everything was white.

It might have been more accurate to say nothing was white, though, Billy mused as he looked around, trying to get his bearings. He wasn't sure where he was, trapped in what seemed like pure nothingness, white like fresh snow or a blank page. Perhaps, if he reached out his hand, he could make a mark on the black canvas of his surroundings. The thought itched at the back of his mind, the curiosity, and his hand lifted as though on its own.

"Should have known you would be trying to fill the void."

The unfamiliar voice made Billy spin around, looking at his sudden company. He was certain nobody had been in sight when he had looked around before, yet here was someone, standing mere feet away from him. No, not standing. The new arrival was seated quite comfortably on nothing at all, one ankle resting on a knee, his arms sprawled wide without the need for visible rests. A man, not very old though clearly older than him, with long dark hair and a wide green cape. Billy took a step back, and then up, feeling the hint of a ground disappearing as he was left floating in nothing at all. "Who are you?"

"And what response could I give that would satisfy you?" The man tilted is head, smirking. "Do I not even merit some guesswork? How very disappointing."

"Loki." The word was out before he had truly processed it, yet he also knew it to be true before he ever got the chance to voice it. And then, another realization that had to be true. "I'm dreaming."

"After a fashion." Loki waved a dismissive hand. "You're certainly asleep, if that's what you mean. Quite safe in your beloved's arms, I assure you, so do not fear. There is little either of us can do to hurt the other."

"What are you doing here?" Because for all his schemes, Loki never did anything without reason. That much even Billy knew to be true. "If this is some kind of a plot…"

"Plot? How droll. Oh, no, I'm here on a much simpler errand." Loki waved his hand again, then suddenly pointed at Billy. "I am here to thank you, William Tonason."

"Thank me?" Billy frowned. "What for?" Though he had a creeping feeling he knew perfectly well.

"Why, for returning that sliver of my magic, obviously." Loki brought his hand down again, tapping his fingers against the invisible arm rest. "You didn't have to do that, and both of us know that. You could have destroyed it, and I'm sure many would have preferred you to do so. Or you could have tried to claim it for your own, if that were your inclination."

"No thanks. I've got plenty of my own."

"Indeed you do. Yet it's not exactly common for a magic-wielder to refuse more." Loki tilted his head again, his expression reminiscent of a cat toying with a mouse. Billy did not like that look. "You intrigue me, Tonason."

"Intrigue?" That didn't sound good. "How so?"

"You do not desire power." Loki shook his head. "Oh, you're happy enough with your magic, and certainly would suffer were you to lose it. However, unlike most of our inclination, you have little interest for more. As long as it can accomplish your usual tasks, you have no need for more." He narrowed his eyes in contemplation. "It makes one wonder why."

"I don't see any need to." Billy shrugged, feeling red fabric fall down his shoulders and behind his back, his cape coming into being without much of a thought. It wasn't much of a shield against Loki, but it did bring him some comfort, and that was all he could hope for right now. "As you said, I can do what I need to. That's enough for me."

 

"It's not all of you, though." As Billy opened his mouth, Loki shook his head. "Oh, don't bother to try and lie to the liesmith, boy. We both know you have the potential for something much greater, even without any attempt at stealing the power of others. And yet, even knowing that, you do not try to reach your limits."

"No, I don't." He hoped he never would have to. "As I said, I don't need to. If I had any need for more power, I'd do my best to gain more, to defend my family or my city or my planet. However, if there's no pressing need, I don't want more than I already have."

"And you are little more than a magician of the lowest order." Loki's voice was soft, silk and honey and a tempting slickness. "People think you're all flash and tricks and no substance, you know. They do not realize your true might, do not understand what they are toying with when they stand against you." A pause, just enough to let the words sink in, before throwing out the nasty hook. "You could make them understand."

"I know." Because there were worlds out there, countless worlds where things were different, where he was different, had gone down a different path to a different outcome. There were worlds where he was the stars, where he formed reality like a whimsical writer reworking a script, and any of those worlds could have been this one. "I don't want to, though."

"As stubborn as your presumed father, I see. Though he is far less reluctant to make the most of his own power. You do not even wish to know what you could be capable of."

"Oh, I'm all too well aware of that." Not directly, no, but he still knew well enough the dangers. "I know what I could do, and how terribly it could go wrong. I've seen what power like mine can do, even with the best of intentions." He drew a deep breath, though he was not entirely sure there was air to breathe. "I will not do that, not unless I am left with no other option."

"So I see." Loki leaned back, just a bit, looking at him with calculating eyes. "And in what case would you have no alternative, little witch?"

"You know perfectly well the answer to that." Billy forced himself to meet Loki's gaze, firm and unyielding. "I will not allow Earth to fall into the hands of the likes of you."

"My, my. How very unpleasant." Loki gave a dramatic sigh. "Worry not, child. I know all too well what you are, and what you could be. More importantly, I know the difference between the two, and it is vast indeed." For a moment, his green eyes seemed to flash with some inner light, but Billy refused to flinch. "Only a fool would encourage any change from the former toward the latter, and for all my numerous and oft recounted flaws, a fool I am not."

"Then you know you should not aggravate me unnecessarily." It was a dangerous game, putting on such bravado in front of Loki of all people, but then, for all he knew this was nothing but a dream.

"Oh, worry not. Earth interests me little; I sit upon the throne that should have been mine from the start, and Thor has relinquished it of his own will, and will not ask for it back." Loki did not mention Odin. Billy found it best not to do so, either. "You keep your little ball of blue, and my oaf of a brother as a gift besides. I have enough to do without having to wage battle with you."

"You stay away from Earth, and make no attempt to threaten it, directly or indirectly." Because it was best to do this properly, for all that it was not binding. No reason to give Loki any extra leeway to go back on such a generous promise. "In return, I will not meddle with your affairs, not unless your actions threaten Earth or those I consider my family."

"That is agreeable to me." Loki stood up, now, and Billy was certain he felt a breeze of cold air brushing against his bare arms, raising goosebumps. "Goodbye, little witch. May we both be fortunate and our ways never cross."

Loki blinked out of sight, leaving Billy alone in the vast whiteness, though only for a moment. The next second he found himself in bed, where he had gone to sleep, securely held against Teddy's broad chest. He burrowed closer to the familiar heat, trying to relax, but despite the warmth a shiver ran down his spine.

Billy closed his eyes, pressed close to Teddy, and murmured a quiet wish.

Perhaps a storm over Manhattan was against all the forecasts, but as he heard the first crack of thunder, the lingering feeling of green eyes boring right through him subsided enough to let him slide off to sleep.

*

New York, Thor decided, was quite beautiful during a storm.

It was not quite comparable to the beautiful spires of Asgard, or even the way the endless icy wastes of Jotunheim lit up at a spark of lightning, but it did have its own charm. The lights of the city were dimmed behind the heavy rain yet doing their best to shine against the darkened sky, a true testament to the ingenuity and spirit of humans if he had ever seen one. They might have claimed magic was not commonplace in their world, yet Thor could clearly see that to be untrue. How could this have been anything but a kind of magic, with all these glowing lights and the bustling life going on despite the rain and storm above?

Jane shifted beside him, her feet tucked under her as she leaned against him, and Thor smiled. Of all the miracles of Midgard, she was the greatest to be sure. So beautiful and smart and courageous, she would have made an excellent queen, and did make the best companion he could have ever wished for. Truly, the only doubt in his mind was whether he was deserving of her love.

Jane hummed something under her breath, her fingers flying over the surface of the tablet device Tony had presented her with, and Thor turned his eyes back to the windows lining one wall, his ears picking up bits and pieces from the conversation elsewhere in the room. Lady Wanda and Natasha were discussing their respective experiences with SHIELD, and while one was yet a warrior and the other had only ever fought for the sake of her family's honor, they seemed to be getting along well enough. Bruce was seated in a corner, reading a book as he took advantage of a rare moment of relative quiet, the young warriors nowhere to be seen. Not that Thor considered himself old, but these children did sometimes make him feel so with their constant rush and energy.

He wondered what his friends might have thought, seeing him seated beside his lady instead of rushing off to another adventure, and decided it did not matter. His home was here, now, for ill or good.

A flash of white outside caught his notice, shortly followed by a startled shout from behind him. Half raising from the couch, he saw a red figure following the white, plummeting down toward the incredible depth of the ground around Tony's walls.

Then the colors were back, swooping up through the air like joyful birds, and he recognized the familiar forms of young William and Ororo. It seemed he was not the only one taking delight in the storm.

"Those brats," Natasha murmured. "They should know better than to give people a fright." She did not seem too frightened as Thor glanced her way, but then her words seemed to be for the benefit the kind Lady Wanda, who certainly appeared startled to have seen her ward fall from the sky like that.

"I shall go and talk with them," Thor declared, glancing at Jane and receiving a nod in return. "I'm sure they merely forgot how frightful it might appear to others, with how natural the flight is to them."

"If you wouldn't mind." Bruce sighed, adjusting his glasses with the slightest twitch of his hand. "I don't like that sight too much, either, even though I know they're both perfectly capable of unassisted flight."

"Very well. I will remind them to mind how their game appears to others." Because he was sure none of them meant to forbid such games altogether, safe as they were despite the frightful appearances.

He took the long way outside, not wishing to invite in the rain that would have followed had he simply taken the fast step out of the living room onto the balcony. Not that it was a long trek either way; Tony's elevating machine saved him many a step on his path to the highest point of the building. Reaching his goal as he stepped out of the door into the pouring rain, he lifted his gaze to the skies.

The children were above him, now, circling against the dark gray, bright spots of color like a pair of butterflies. Little Ororo was darting every which way as though she were lightning herself, a notion which, he had come to understand, was not as fanciful as it might have seemed. Humans never ceased to surprise him with their potential. Young William was beside her, looking as proud as any brother could hope to be, and for a moment the mere sight of it made Thor's heart burn with regret and shame.

Then he lifted his face toward them, feeling the rain pouring down on him, dragging him toward the ground, and focused on the here and now. "William!" he bellowed, lifting his voice above the roar of the storm. "Ororo!"

For a moment he almost thought they had not heard him, for all that no storm had ever truly drowned his voice before, but then they changed their course to head down, touching the ceiling softly like a pair of rain drops themselves. William ran a hand through his hair, though Thor was somewhat unsettled to notice he appeared untouched by the rain.

"Thor. You called?"

"That I did." He nodded at the grinning pair. "Much though I loathe to interfere with your fun, I do believe Lady Wanda and the others would find it less distressing if you kept your more daring dives up here where you cannot startle anyone."

"Ah, right." William gave him a sheepish grin. "We were seeing which one of us could dive faster and didn't really think how it might look to others."

"We'll be careful!" Ororo's face turned into a little frown, doubtless feeling bad at having startled her mother, then brightened again. "I've gotten really good at flying in the rain! Wanna see?"

Thor found himself smiling, unbidden. "It would be a delight, my lady."

She giggled in delight, then took to air as easily as a leaf in the wind, her white hair drawing streaks of lightning against the thunder-dark sky. William stayed closer to the roof, looking up at her with that same proud grin that made Thor ache for what might have been.

Then he looked at Thor, expression turning more somber, and Thor's thoughts returned firmly to the here and now. "I need to talk to you."

Thor gave him a nod, sensing a grave discussion about to come. "I am listening."

"I… well." William sighed, glancing aside. "I made this storm."

Thor nodded again, slower this time. "This does not surprise me." It did not, really, though he might not have guessed it if he hadn't been told. "They did say it is unusual for a storm to go on so long with such strength."

"Right. If it hasn't died out by evening, I'll do my best to wish it away." William sighed again. "I usually wouldn't do something like that, but… well. Let's just say I had some trouble getting to sleep last night."

"I see." Thor frowned. "And storms help you settle?" They certainly were beneficial to his own slumber, but he knew he was an exception to the rule.

"Not usually, no. It's just… under the circumstances, it seemed like the best idea."

"And what would those circumstances be?" Whatever many of his friends might have said in jest, he was not a stupid man. There was more to this than just a sleepless night, he knew that much.

"I… had a visitor." William drew a deep breath, looking Thor directly in the eye. "Thor… I believe I spoke with Loki last night."

Thor could feel himself paling. "That's impossible," he said. "Loki is…"

"He's alive, Thor. I suspected it when I was purifying my magic; it felt like someone received the bit I sent off, and that must have been Loki. Now he visited my dreams and spoke to me."

"And what did he say?" And did he want to know what his wayward brother, or some phantom disguised as him, would have told their young magician friend?

"A lot of things." William shook his head. "He thanked me for returning his magic. Wondered why I didn't take it for myself."

"Did he say how he would have survived?" Because he had been certain Loki was dead. He would not have left him behind otherwise.

"No, though I have my suspicions, based on what he did say." William worried his lip. "I don't want to say anything more without proof, but I believe he is alive and well, and he's not in any immediate danger."

"I'm glad to hear that at least." Thor paused, contemplating whether he should ask anything else. "Did he… did he say anything about his plans?"

"We came to an agreement, of sorts." William looked up toward the still playing Ororo, a troubled look on his young face. "Having seen how our magics interact, we decided it would be in both of our best interests not to mix them again. As long as he stays away from Earth and my people, I will stay away from his plans."

Thor got the distinct impression there was more to this, but did not question his young friend. Instead, he followed his gaze up to the playing child. "Thank you," he said, hoping his sincerity would come through even in his quiet tone. "This is… joyful news."

"I figured you'd like to know." William was hovering again, now, still dry despite the pouring rain and rolling thunder. "I haven't told anyone else, though, and I don't plan to. Not unless he starts some trouble."

"Thank you for that as well." Thor squared his shoulders. "If he has somehow survived his ordeal, I think he has earned his peace."

"I agree." As Thor glanced at him in question, William gave him a faint smile. "I know it's not easily apparent, but I was a big brother for most of my life, and I had to leave my little brothers behind, too. So, while I know the others might not agree, I'm willing to give Loki that peace, as long as he does not disturb it himself."

"On that we are agreed." Thor returned his eyes to Ororo. "Perhaps we should get her inside? If I am not mistaken, it will be time for dinner soon enough."

"I suppose that would be for the best." And with just that, he rose higher into the air, heading toward his young friend. Thor stood still until they came spiraling down again, Ororo laughing in delight, then followed them inside. As they walked into the warmth of the house, he could have sworn the storm was dying down behind them.

It was just as well to leave such things behind, as their new family was waiting for them.

*

The Central Park was quiet this time of the evening. Billy leaned back on a bench, watching the few people passing by. None of them paid any attention to him, until one slowed down and came to a halt, then sat down next to him.

"Hi there." Wiccan smiled at him, setting down a bag he had been carrying. "I see you've mastered the spell for going unnoticed."

"I've been practicing." Billy turned to look at him. "I think I've figured it out for the most part."

"Believe me, it does seem to be working." Wiccan looked up to the sky. "So. How has everything been?"

"Busy. I think I figured out why you decided to skip your last month's visit." Billy shook his head. "You're right, I would have asked how it all turned out. And I think you would have been tempted to answer."

"Except if I had, it might have changed things, and meddling with time is Kang's territory and a very bad idea besides." Wiccan gave him a faint smile. "But it all turned out all right, I see."

"More or less." Billy returned the small smile. "Everyone's home, I'm all right for the most part, we found everyone we set out to find and Ororo besides and Erik isn't entirely evil."

"I'd say that's pretty well for one week. And that's not counting the good Agent." Wiccan chuckled. "I've got to say, I'm not sure I would have dared to try that."

"Well, I've got different resources than you do. Not the same raw power, but my magical library is pretty impressive now. They really went all out with my birthday gift."

"So I've come to understand." Now, Wiccan reached for his bag. "That reminds me, I promised to get you a gift."

"You didn't have —" Billy started, but it was useless anyway as Wiccan took out a fairly big box.

"I know it's usually bad form to give people pets without asking them first, but I figured that since I would have liked this, you might too." Wiccan handed him the box. "Here you go. With thanks to Miss America Chavez; she was happy to help me find the right dimension again once I explained who it was for."

"Right." Billy blinked at the box. It had small holes all over it, presumably for air, and as he held it in his hands he could feel it moving. "From another dimension? Are you sure this isn't anything dangerous?"

"Only if you're allergic to cuteness." Wiccan gave him a small grin. "Go on, open it."

"Right." Billy set the box in his lap and opened the lid carefully. As he did so, he found himself staring at a pair of big, bug-like eyes. A second later their owner bounced out of the box, reaching tiny arms around Billy's neck.

"Demiurge!" the creature cried in a high-pitched voice. "Demiurge!"

"No, no, I told you." Wiccan chuckled, reaching a hand to pet the creature's head. "This is Billy. Billy, remember?"

"Billy?" The creature hopped back, looking up at Billy with contemplative eyes, then smiled again. "Billy!"

"What is this?" Something cute, to be sure, but that wasn't exactly enough of a description. The whole creature might have come up to his knee at best, standing with two tiny legs and reaching two equally tiny arms in his direction, its head taking up about half its height. Its entire body was covered in green fur, aside from the four leaf-like growths on its head that Billy supposed were its ears.

"Well, I'm pretty sure they don't have a scientific name anyway, so I have resorted to the very specific name of fluffies." Wiccan shrugged a bit. "They're semi-sentient, enough to understand human speech for the most part, though their own vocabulary is pretty limited. Far as we could tell they get their energy from water and sunlight like plants, so really the only thing they spend their time doing is being cute."

"And you brought one for me? From another dimension?" Billy carefully petted its head. The creature leaned into his touch. "Won't it miss its friends?"

"Well, I asked it before bringing it over, so I'm assuming it's prepared for that. And I think it'll get plenty of love and company in the Tower, anyway."

"It certainly is adorable." Enough so he almost wondered if it had some kind of passive magical charm ability. "But how am I supposed to explain it to everyone else?"

"Tell them a dimensional hole popped open and it fell through? It's true enough, after all." Wiccan grinned. "Besides, five minutes around the thing and nobody will object to it being around. They made even Loki smile, and that's an achievement."

"Right." Billy turned serious again. "I — Loki. There's something most people don't know, concerning him in this world."

"There usually is." Wiccan shook his head. "I can't really tell you what to do about him, seeing how I ran around a bunch of worlds with one version of him. Sure, I almost got killed for it and it turned out he arranged most of it in the first place, but… well. I just don't know, in the end. Don't trust him too much, is really all I can say."

"I wasn't about to." No, not ever. A truce was really the most he would have ever hoped for, and even that was tentative. "So, uh. Why did you bring me this thing? Not that it isn't adorable, but…"

"It was America's idea, to be honest. Yes, I told her about you; I figured she'd understand, being a dimensional traveler herself. And you know why she agreed to help me?" As Billy shook his head, Wiccan sighed. "She hoped having this little guy around would remind you of something that I… that I forgot, for a while."

"And what's that?" Somehow, he dreaded the answer, but he had to ask anyway.

"That we are not expendable." Wiccan set a hand over his. "You are not expendable, not ever, nor is there a situation where you would be an acceptable loss. And if you ever are about to forget that, even with Teddy and Tommy and Kate and everyone else around you… well. America figured that it might help if you remembered that this creature chose you over its entire world." His voice dropped lower, now. "Just in case you don't have someone to stop you like I did."

"Right." He almost asked what had happened, what Wiccan had tried to do before he was stopped, but decided against it. He knew himself, could well imagine what he might be driven to. It was not something he wished to dwell on. "I — I'll try to remember."

"Thank you." Wiccan's smile was without much humor for a second, then turned more genuine. "So. Feel like going for a coffee now? I can do another spell so people don't pay attention to your new friend. I'd rather like to hear more details about your adventure."

"Sure. Coffee sounds great right about now." He wondered about how to transport the fluffy thing for a second, but it easily hopped up on his shoulder, making a giggling sound as Billy stood up. Well, he supposed it was good enough. "I guess this thing needs a name, huh?"

"I think he'd like one, yeah." Wiccan collected his bag and the now empty box, then got up as well. "And you'd better give him one before Tommy gets around or he'll get called Troll for all eternity."

"Good point." Not that he expected Tommy to refrain from such things anyway, but it was worth a try. "The usual place?"

"Of course." And then they fell into step, easy as ever, their stride identical because it was the same. The little creature on his shoulder made a cooing sound, like a little bird, and yeah, that was just too adorable for words.

He hoped Teddy wouldn't mind the pitter-patter of tiny feet in their room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't forget to stick around for the after-credit scenes.


	11. After Credits - Who We Need

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tommy finds something interesting on his nightstand, and Charles has a conversation that has been a long time coming. And somewhere far, far away, a young man prepares for a long journey.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again, I would like to thank **Asario** for sticking with me through this whole ride. Thank you, darling. I wouldn't have made it this far without you.  <3
> 
> And to anyone who has read this far: Thank you! I hope you've enjoyed reading this story as much as I enjoyed writing it.

"Well, that was fun." Tommy couldn't help but smirk a bit as he walked through the doorway, stretching his arms above his head. "And it's going to be even more fun to see what follows from it."

"Why am I not surprised that you'd be so happy about telling the world about mutants in a live TV interview?" Kate snorted, following him into her room. Well, their room; they did share it more often than not, nowadays. He really only still had his own room so he had somewhere to go when he was in the doghouse.

"You make it sound like I did it on a whim." He might have pouted, but he knew it wouldn't work on her, either way. "I'll have you know it was very much a calculated move, and actually not my idea."

"Oh, I know, I've heard both Billy and you on the phone with Professor X often enough. And, yeah, I can see his point, it's about time the world knows about mutants. And it's true that having the Stark twins come out as such is pretty much the best publicity the mutant population is ever going to have. But still, you're being a bit too gleeful about this."

"Can you really blame me?" He twirled about, spreading his hands in mock innocence. "Back there, being a mutant got me locked up, kicked out, treated like an animal for daring to exist. Here, I'm a fucking superstar. Here, being a mutant just makes me that much more interesting and special. Hell yes I'm going to be all gleeful about it, and if on top of that I can help some kid not get kicked to the curb or end up as a lab rat, all the better."

"You know what I mean." Okay, perhaps he did, but for now, he was choosing to ignore that fact. "In any case, the cat's out of the bag, so you've done your part for now. Now it's time for the PR people to spin everything for the better before things get out of hand."

"I suppose." He took off his sunglasses, custom-made to look like a classier version of his goggles, and capable of doubling as such in a pinch. As he went to set them on the nightstand he had taken over, though, he noticed something that had not been there when they had left.

It was a simple card, not especially notable in any manner. Basic cardstock, basic font, nothing to identify it by. Even the message was as simple as it could get. A phone number, and underneath it one letter. "M."

"Tommy?" Even without looking, he knew Kate was frowning. It was clear enough in her voice. "Is something the matter?"

"Hm? No, nothing. Just lost in my thoughts for a moment." Hand moving faster than the normal eye could see, he slipped the card underneath the book he'd been meaning to read for approximately two weeks now. She'd just get freaked out, either about the card itself or the fact that someone had apparently managed to sneak into their room just like that, and really it would have been quite mean of him to worry her like that.

He wasn't one for secrets, really, they just weren't his style, it was so much easier to just speak his mind and to hell with who was supposed to know. Just this once, though, he might keep this to himself, at least for a little while.

No reason for Billy to get all the fluffy family moments from unexpected sources.

*

Charles had just settled down in his favorite chair, drawing close a cup of hot tea, as he felt the first brush at the edge of his mind.

At first he figured it might have been one of the students, reaching out for his attention for whatever reason. It certainly would not have been the first time they tried to contact him in such a manner, and every time they succeeded, it made him proud beyond belief. It was the delight of every proper teacher, after all, to see their student exceed any expectations, and Charles was no different from his colleagues in that regard. It was not impossible for someone to call out to him in their thoughts, given the way he monitored most of the school at all times, but it did take some concentration and focus, both of which were often in short supply for teenagers.

However, as he opened his mind, welcoming the tentative touch, he realized with an almost physical startle that this was not, in fact, one of his students, nor any of the school's staff. However, it was a familiar contact, one he could not have forgotten no matter the number of years that passed. And it had been years, so many of them by now, and oh, he could not have even imagined he could feel this again.

'Erik?' he asked, hardly even believing what he felt to be true. 'Erik, is that you?'

There was silence, for a moment, and he was starting to become convinced he had merely imagined it, too hopeful after hearing the news from the darling boys. Then, however, there were words, somewhat rougher than before, but then it wasn't like the poor man had found the opportunity for much telepathic conversation lately. 'Charles?'

'Yes, it's me.' He set his tea cup aside very carefully, not wanting to risk dropping it in case of another shock. Not even he was infallible, after all, and he rather liked the cup. 'To what do I owe this pleasure?'

'You are well.' It wasn't a question. 'I thought I'd check on you anyway.'

'Indeed I am, though I appreciate the concern. Not that you would ever admit to feeling such.' Charles allowed himself a small smile, let it seep into his thoughts just enough to be felt. 'I heard you spent quite some time with young William recently.'

'I suppose you could say that.' There was something very unique about Erik's mental voice. Everyone's thoughts felt different, of course, that was how he could tell them apart, but Erik's had not escaped his memory even with so many years without feeling the slightest hint of them. There was metal there, to no one's surprise, strong enough that he could almost feel the taste of it in his mouth, sharp and clear as though he had bitten into his tongue hard enough to draw blood. It was cold, too, in a way some people seemed to be, but Charles was always reminded of a crisp winter day rather than unpleasant shivers. It was just as well, really; for all his sins, he had trouble associating Erik's mind with anything that wasn't beautiful.

'I trust he returned home safely.' Of course he knew that by now, had made sure to find out, but he wanted to hear it from Erik as well.

'As safe as he could be under the circumstances. I turned him over to his family and friends; I would like to trust them to get him home in one piece.'

'Yes, well, I was told he made the trip, so clearly your trust has not been misplaced.' Charles waited for a moment, but there was no response. 'It has been a while.'

'Quite a long one, yes. I thought I'd give you a chance again.'

'How gracious of you. And how important was William to this choice of yours?'

'I'm not going soft if that is what you imply, Charles. He is not of my blood, and you know that as well as I do.'

'No, he's not. But he is the blood of someone you might have become under different circumstances.' Again, he paused before venturing on. 'You are not a lost cause, Erik.'

'I would like to see you tell that to SHIELD.'

'And I will, believe me, if they come to question me about such matters. They already know about your role in the dispatching of the rest of the ice giants. Such a dreadful business, that. I'm glad you were always such a fast thinker.'

'Ah, yes. You and your ways of judging people.' There was a faint hint of amusement to Erik's mental voice, like a sharp blade, fine and dangerous if used with the intent to hurt, yet with enough finesse and care to leave a shaved face smooth and fresh without the slightest nick. The dichotomy had always quite fascinated Charles. 'Are you going to come for a visit any time soon?'

'Somehow I don't think that would be appreciated yet. Maybe one day when I don't think your guard dog would slit my throat for even thinking of going near your kids.'

'Logan is hardly a dog, Erik. But yes, he is quite protective of his charges. It is one of his more charming qualities.' Charles smiled to himself. 'I do find it quite fascinating how the most, ah, gruffy men also tend to get the most enthusiastic about keeping those in their care safe.'

'He has priorities. I can respect that.' Erik was the one who gave pause, now, but Charles did not say anything, feeling that there was yet more to be said. 'Have you met the child yet?'

'Ororo? No, I have not, though I plan to do so soon. According to the young ones she should have quite fascinating powers. I suggested that she should stay here for a little while until we are sure she has learned some control, after which they might wish to locate elsewhere. She is still quite young, after all, perhaps too young for such surroundings.'

'They?'

'Ah, yes. Did you not know? Wanda has assumed responsibility for her. I do believe Tony has been handling all the paperwork to make sure she can legally adopt her. It is not quite entirely above board, but I can't disagree with their motivations, and it's not like the little one has anywhere else to go, with her parents gone.'

'Good.' And though he could tell Erik was holding back, there was a flood of emotion there, barely kept in check by sturdy mental walls that must have taken years to construct to such strength.

'Indeed it is. I believe they will be quite happy, the little family they are. And of course Ororo can always count on her older siblings, no matter what.'

'She deserves to be happy.'

'As do all children, Erik.' Charles ran a fingertip along the rim of his tea cup, trying not to put too much meaning into his words. 'But then, that's what you have always thought, is it not?'

'I merely want mutant children to have the same opportunity as those who are born in a form more acceptable to the society.'

'I know that. I never disagreed with your goals, it was simply your ways of reaching them that I could not bear to stand by.' Charles closed his eyes, doing his best to capture this fresh feeling of Erik's mind in contact with his. 'Do drop by the school some day, my old friend. I promise I will keep Logan in check, and Raven as well. I would love to converse with you in person after so long, and I'm sure you would love to see all the happy children we are so proud to have here.'

'Perhaps one day.' Which he knew truly meant no, but it was a no that could be turned around some day, if only he was patient enough. 'Keep watching over them, Charles. Until the world is safe for them, they will need a haven to rest.'

'You know I always will, Erik. No matter what happens.'

'Oh, I know. You always were a naïve fool like that.' And yet, there was an almost fond tone to the words, one that left Charles unable to take actual offense. 'Those children are all fortunate to have a home with you.'

He made to respond, but as fast as thoughts were, they did not reach their destination. Erik had drawn away, his touch gone, as though he had not been there at all. Charles blinked his eyes open again, wondering whether he might have imagined it all, or perhaps fallen asleep.

The tea was there beside him, though, clearly set down with care though almost untouched. Taking it up with hands that only shook ever so slightly, he brought the cup to his lips, taking a small sip. It was not as hot as he might have preferred, but it would have to do.

"You could have that home as well, my friend," he murmured. "You need but come back to it."

There was no response from the silent room, but then he had not expected one.

Erik never was there when Charles truly needed to hear his voice.

*

They were getting ready for take-off.

Had he been more inclined for sentimentality, he might have given a thought to the things he was leaving behind, perhaps for good. There was his world, for one thing, and all the people in it. His genetic contributors, among others. He didn't know if he would ever see them again, didn't know if he would see his planet again.

That was all unimportant, of course. This was what he had been created for, the task he had been made to fulfill. It was utterly pointless to concern himself with things that couldn't come even close to the importance of his task, things such as whether he was coming home again.

This was his home, anyway, or at least it was to become his home. He had the ship for a home, and the crew for a family and friends, and if he did ever return he would be sure to do so with honor and many accomplishments under his belt. That was such a distant thing right now, though, a far-off moment somewhere beyond new worlds and experiences, so varied that he couldn't even begin to guess at them. All he could do was rush forward to meet all the new things head-on. Rushing forward was something he had always been good at.

Ensign Noh-Varr, of the Diplomatic Corps, was ready for his first mission.

Long live the glorious empire of the Kree.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **About Continuation:**
> 
>  
> 
> The next part in the series will be another interlude by the name of **A Bug in the System** , which will be posted in a few weeks' time. After that, I'll be working on **Highest Functional Velocity** , which, as implied by the title, will be somewhat Tommy-centric.
> 
> Do also keep an eye on [Spare Parts](http://archiveofourown.org/series/1224362), which was started as a place to store sidestories for this 'verse. While it's fairly empty right now, I'll be posting a Teddy/Billy ~~PWP~~ oneshot there next week, and hopefully more stories as time goes on.


End file.
